The Attraction Hypothosis
by 1Shimmer
Summary: This will be the first act in a multi-part Sheldon/OC series. Moving in, a laboratory incident, and a lot of TV.
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER:**I do not own any characters/places/brands/referances other than Alison and the plot ideas. This is my first FanFic so hopefully it will be decent :)

Just a note: If you strongly support Shamy this is not going to be a good fic for you. I really don't see them as a good romantic pair. I don't see them as really able to go anywhere. That said, because I'm writing this it's going to be a long slow(yet not boring) time before this story actually goes anywhere. I really wish I could also add /humor/friendship to the genre because this is really a lot of things. Also the _ means a POV change.

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The best day of her life. She was sure that it was today. Alison had sent in her application to Caltech's expanding genetics department only 2 weeks ago. She was fresh out of college, and it was unheard of for someone like her to get a job so fast. It was accepted, and now she was on the plane to her future. Dr. Carter pressed her head into the back of the plane seat grinning, her eyes squinched closed. This was the day that both of her biggest dreams would come true. She would live in California AND be a geneticist, like actually employed; doing research that could ACTUALLY count for something. She looked at the email confirming her belongings being shipped to her new apartment to arrive this afternoon, 2311 N. Los Robles Avenue in Pasadena, California, Apartment 4C. Of course she would have to get the things up to the 4th floor, but the shipping company just wrote down exactly what she put in for her address. It sounded so perfect she wanted to stare at that line of text until the very second the attendant forced her to put her phone away. Biting the inside of her lip she closed her eyes and turned off the pink box that held all of her secrets and dreams. She focused in on the image; she had always been able to remember random snippits of things forever, but she had been practicing since high school so that maybe someday she could remember everything without having to work for it. She had made some strides, but she never wanted to forget today. EVER. _'Today August 22n__d__ I am on a plane, going to California. I will be starting my new I'll start my job, my dream job. I will be doing everything I could have pictured since the 8__th__ grade. Plus I will finally get the taste of apartment life that I've wanted since I lived in the same house since I was 2 months old. I will live today. I will remember everything about today.' _ And then the plane took off.  
_

"Sheldon, we are getting a new neighbor!" Leonard yelled. Sheldon leaped off of the stool. He was undeniably curious, the first explanation he came up with was certainly not something he could get used to.  
"Penny's leaving?" He asked. Penny was important to the group structure, not vital, but necessary enough to warrant the concerned tone.  
"Nope, in 4C" He laughed a little from across the room, "Arriving sometime today."

Startled and unprepared for the new neighbor living so very close, "4C has been empty for years! Male or Female? Bedtime? Music Preferences? What does he slash she do for work?" He began asking questions only stopped by Leonard walking out the door. The car ride was the most painful thing Leonard had ever endured. Constantly asking questions, of course ones that Leonard didn't know the answer to. He had brought a note pad, that before the drive was half over he had filled with incomprehensible notations, he knew what they meant, but anyone looking at it wouldn't have the slightest clue what he was trying to figure out. Sheldon was worried that this new neighbor was really just like Penny. Penny has always been a schedule change in the making, imaging the chaos caused by 2 Pennys! Sheldon of course was too wrapped up in the stresses of a new next door neighbor to care about the feelings of his current roommate, not that he typically did. Little did he know, but Dr. Alison Carter would be the best and worst new neighbor he would ever have.  
_

After a ridiculous amount of time and three stops Alison heard, "We will be arriving at LAX in 9 minutes," over the loud speaker, she squealed with glee, she knew there would still be a 48 minute cab ride to the building, but still this was amazing. She would soon be standing in the airport that she had always dreamed of traveling through. The whole thing felt so picturesque to her. She was hardly even sure that she wasn't living in a dream from herself in the 9th grade. She immediately turned her phone on, she placed a call to President Siebert, "Excuse me sir, this is Dr. Carter. I just got off the plane, I was just checking on everything, it's only Tuesday… I know I don't begin work until Thursday, but I was just wondering if I could drop in tomorrow for like an official tour, or something?" He agreed that she should stop by and visit the facilities before she officially began work, after 5 minutes of arguing in the cab. Next she called the building manager who confirmed her apartment was ready and that her stuff was in the lobby ready for her to take it up. She arrived only moments after Sheldon and Leonard returned to the building. Sheldon had been digging around in one of the larger boxes, containing mostly the pieces of her bed frame while Leonard signaled him to stop from the first landing.

"So, need any help there?" Alison boldly blurted out. This was rather uncharacteristic of her, but she felt like it was the right thing to say for this part of this perfect day. She usually would have been at a loss for words, but somehow she managed to pull it together in time for a witty comment.  
"Actually yes, I'm trying to find out about my new next door neighbor," Sheldon said, rifling through a box with the words "Towels, bath" Printed in black Sharpie on the side. Alison's face was hidden behind another tower of boxes.  
"Well, I guess it's totally logical to start with the labeled boxes, huh? People smuggling in cocaine don't right "Cocaine" on the box..." She said laughing  
"Exactly, the last time a new neighbor moved in my roommate didn't understand that!" Sheldon exclaimed. Looking up past the boxes and seeing Alison for the first time.  
"Alison Carter, Apartment 4C, glad to meet you," She said smiling, she hated using her title when first meeting people. Dr. Alison Carter, that just sounds too intimidating, too formal and professional for the casual setting of bumping into someone in the lobby. "So, how would you and your flaily friend like to help me get this stuff into the elevator?" She asked still giggling about the situation.

Leonard, finally coming down replied, "Elevator is broken, has been for years. But I guess helping you get your stuff up the stairs is the least we can do, especially after this."

She and Sheldon both said, "Really?" at the same exact time, though Alison's was an expression of gratitude, while Sheldon couldn't believe his dear friend would volunteer him for such a task.

"I have a friend from online who lives in 4B who said she'd help before she went to work, she should be down soon…." Alison said just as Penny walked down the stairs. They both ran screaming to each other, then proceeded to jump up and down squealing things about how great it is to finally meet. They somehow managed to get everything upstairs by 7:30. Alison thanked them for the help as she pushed the last box in and began to unpack her things.  
_

"Well this has certainly thrown a kink in my schedule! We were supposed to be AT the cheese cake factory an hour and a half ago!" Sheldon wailed as he and Leonard got into the car and started driving to the cheese cake factory, "We should be done eating, done driving home, I mean REALLY I don't understand why you insist on always being neighborly! I mean you are in a relationship with Penny now, what can you possibly gain from this?"

"Let's try NOT GETTING ARRESTED! You went through her stuff! She could have called the cops and gotten you and probably me in jail!" Leonard yelled.

Sheldon didn't really see how trying to find out more about the person who he would have to spend every day right next to could be illegal. "She seems like a friendly person!" Sheldon yelled back.

Leonard muttered "Luckily" under his breath while Sheldon sat trying to figure out as much as he could about Alison just from the box labels and the towels that were all Pink or Aqua. Deciding that she must still be in college, or she never went, no mature woman would have neon colored bath towels. She must be like Penny, a wannabe actress, immature, girly, and hopeless when it comes to life. He couldn't have been more wrong about her. Though the fact that she and Penny were online buddies reinforced that theory, and she was a bit disorganized, but she is a lot smarter than she looks.

"Certainly, she's just another Penny."

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Sorry for the slow intro chapter. There will be better ones I promise! Please review this, I really want to hear what you think about it, I do appreciate constructive criticism, but DO NOT flame on me just because you ship Shamy. (BTW this is going to be a really long thing when I'm done) Chapter 2 coming soon, I promise it's way more exciting than this one. Also, I think I know the characters well enough to write this, but if I get something glaringly wrong, please point it out to me. (Trust me you won't hurt my feelings)


	2. Chapter 2

New Chapter, I hope you enjoy reading it!

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Amy had been sitting up in bed for nearly an hour. She couldn't sleep with her mind full of thoughts about Sheldon. She couldn't figure out why she couldn't shake the thoughts. Sheldon was brilliant, but it was tearing at her whether or not that was enough of a reason to put up with all of his flaws. The things that she had managed to convince herself she could tolerate. It really wasn't as easy as she thought it was. He never held her hand. They only kissed if she kissed him, hugs were nearly nonexistent, and she remembered people who she had nearly fallen for in the past, Stewart and Zach. They were the kind of people that could actually progress in a relationship, especially Stewart. Loyalty was the only thing that held her to Sheldon all that time. She didn't want to leave him out in the cold, she couldn't imagine just really breaking up with him, with no intention, no willingness to get back together. But then again he could be so emotionless, would he really even care? She didn't doubt that he loves her in his own way, but that way wasn't something that she could really feel. She knew exactly what she saw in him to begin with. She fell in love with his brain, and though she managed to overlook his lack of feeling, his lack of romance, all of his crazy quirks, even convincing herself she liked many of them, she didn't feel the same about him now that she had had this first second-thought there was no going back. Now that she had doubted the perfection of the relationship she knew she would notice these things all the time. She decided to send him an E-mail requesting a pre-lunch Video-Chat Session. Then if the moment felt right she would end their relationship.

In the morning Alison got up at 6:30 and started listening to old music from when she was still in college. Regular college, before she even started graduate school. It was ancient, but it was exactly what she needed, a reminder of where she came from before she began her future. She lied around and ate Frut Pufz until 9 am. She could barely contain her excitement; this was it, just an hour and a half until she would be walking into the halls of her dreams. She put on a red blouse, and a black skirt, she wanted to look formal, but not dowdy, and perky, but not over enthusiastic. Adding mascara and a dusting of a muted red eye shadow, she proceeded to do exactly what she always did when she needed confidence: curl her light brown hair and make sure every inch of her face was perfectly made up. She arrived at Caltech right on time. Stepping out of the white compact rental car and into the parking garage, she brushed a bit of pink fuzz off her skirt, and then walked into the building.

Amy called Sheldon's laptop at exactly 2 minutes until he would leave for lunch. She closed her eyes and thought to herself '_okay, you can do this' _before opening her eyes at the exact moment he accepted the video chat.

"Amy, I'm assuming this is very important if it required privacy and couldn't wait until our date night, it's only 15 days away," he said. Typical, all too typical, she half wanted him to say something sweet that made her think twice about the break up, but he didn't. He said exactly what the Sheldon she was tired of putting up with would say. She took a deep breath letting her words fall into place, hesitating for as long as she could.

Then she tried to sound steady as she said, "No, this can't wait even one more second."

Her heart pounding as she blurted out the next sentence as fast as she could, "I'm sorry Sheldon, but I'm breaking up with you." She swallowed hard as she prepared her next sentence, even though Sheldon clearly hadn't heard the first.

He stated "It would appear that your microphone is malfunctioning." She could hear him just fine, so she looked down the length of the cable, sure enough it had been chewed apart by Freddie the lab rabbit. He was intended for her study on addictions in animals, but he seemed to be a bit of an escape artist. She opened the chat window and explained that the cable had been chewed, and then he asked what she had said. It took all of her strength to type in her words. He then, quite flatly stated that the relationship agreement was thereby voided and that he would not be seeing her in 15 days. The lack of emotion in his words angered her. She wouldn't miss him at all if this was the last memory she would have from her relationship with Sheldon.

Alison had nearly finished the tour, she had talked to several of her future coworkers, who she found to be wonderful people, seen the bright shiny lab and all of the equipment it contained, learned about the important features of the building, and time flew by. The Soon enough it was lunch time, she knew she could leave now, the tour was over, and it would have been the desired reaction for her to leave and grab a taco or something at some drive through, but the problem was that she didn't know where anything was in Pasadena yet. So she dropped into the Cafeteria. She walked through the doors looking down at her phone, and she crashed right into Sheldon.

"Oh my gosh I'm so sorr- Hey, I didn't know you worked here!" She gasped as she recognized him.

"And you go here?" He asked, not believing that the girl he had confidently marked as an immature wannabe actress yesterday could be a student, let alone an employee.

"No, actually I'm, well I will be starting tomorrow, a geneticist, I'm only here to tour the facilities today, and I'm beyond impressed!" She answered, smiling. Sheldon was slightly irritated by her long-winded explanation; he refused to believe that he could have been so wrong about her. Then they walked silently to the cafeteria line, neither knew quite what to say, but eventually Alison, broke the silence "I guess I've hardly introduced myself, I'm Dr. Alison Carter, and you are?"

"Dr. Sheldon Cooper," he replied flatly. She picked up her turkey wrap and setting the trey down said, "Well, I guess I'll head home…"

"Alright, I suppose I'll see you later," He spoke the words with relief , all he wanted was for her to leave so her could go talk to his friends, he was running a little late, after the talk with Amy, so he was the last to arrive. Setting his tray down on the table, and in the middle of sitting down he apathetically said, "Amy broke up with me," as if it meant nothing to him, because really it didn't. She had given him some great memories, and a wonderful friendship, the first something no one can take away, and the second something he was sure he didn't need. After saying this he received a chorus of "Oh no," "Really?" And "How are you taking it?" from his overly concerned friends, who were making a huge deal out of it. It meant nothing, sure Amy was a great person but that was really about all. "Yes, via video chat, although her lab rabbit had chewed her microphone chord, so she had to repeat it into the text window," He described, before adding, "And how would you expect me to take it?"

"Emotionlessly," they all said looking at each other.

Not another word was spoken at lunch. Sheldon was slightly offended that all of his friends could say something like that, but he wasn't quite sure what to think, since it appeared to be true.

"PENNY, I need to talk to you!" Amy wailed from the opposite side of the door. When she opened the door Amy shouted "I just broke up with Sheldon through a video chat IM window!" Her eyes wide, she was talking way too fast, and at that high anxious frequency, "I managed to convince myself that I would rather date Stewart, and sure Sheldon can be a pain in the ass, but really he was something steady, something that wasn't moving, that's why I got sick of it, but it wasn't like he was going to dump me. And sure Stewart is suitable, but is he really a replacement for Sheldon? What have I done?"

Penny looked up at her distressed friend unsure of what to say. "Um, come inside," that was all she could manage. She couldn't decide if this was a good thing that she was moving on from Dr. Whack-a-doodle or if this would crush them both. She knew Amy hade a sensitive side, and while she didn't have any proof she'd like to think Sheldon did too. She walked to the kitchen, knowing that this warranted alcohol. Penny tossed her phone to Amy and told her, "Call Bernadette, tell her that she needs to come to Penny's right away without asking questions." Amy complied and they both waited.

This was big. It was only just after 3 o clock; Bernadette knew that anything requiring Amy to have Penny's cell phone during the day must be important. She burst through the door without knocking to see Amy pacing frantically through the living room holding a glass of something she couldn't identify by sight, while Penny, who appeared to be completely exasperated, through her arms in the air and shouted, "Look, Bernadette is here!" before she immediately opened the refrigerator and pulled out several bottles of things Bernadette knew to be alcohol.

Amy looked up at Bernadette, and then wailed, "I broke up with Sheldon, via Video Chat IM box!" she then explained about the rabbit that chewed her microphone chord, and how she was upset that their relationship wasn't going anywhere, but Bernadette stood frozen through the whole explanation. She couldn't believe it. Sure Amy and Sheldon weren't a perfect couple, but they were about as close as either one could dream to find! Penny poured from a few of the bottles, none of which she recognized, and handed it to Amy, who in turn asked, "Are you sure this is a good idea? I've had like 5 cups of whateverthatotherthingyougav emewas…" running her words together.

Penny laughed, after a few moments she managed to gasp out, "That was Cool Aid. However, you seem to have managed to get quite a sugar rush…" Amy only nodded in reply, as she started to drink the beverage.

Alison sat down at her computer, fully intent on just goofing off for a few hours, but she realized she had an e-mail, like an important one, not just another "Sweetie, are you Alive?" from her mom. She had stopped asking "How are you?" years ago. Alison couldn't stand that question. It was one of a category of questions that people ask when they want you to feel like they care about your life, to which the only socially acceptable answers are; Good, Fine, or Yes, Answers that go past this to the positive side were only occasionally allowable, or you come off as too perky, and anything to the negative consisting of more than 5 words is considered "TMI". It was just a huge binding social convention, she had learned to live with a lot of things, but she couldn't wrap her mind around asking a question simply to receive such a meaningless answer. She had accepted coasters, not screaming at small spiders, and the perplexing concept of greeting acquaintances by name as proof that you remembered it, but these blather questions as she called them, they were a whole other problem.

She opened the e-mail from someone at the university. It turned out to be from Dr. Fredrick Neilson, the senior of the Caltech Genetic Research Sub-division. The Message read, "Due to the completion of our sub-division's expansion, I am pleased to announce that Caltech's genetics division will now be considered as a separate department. As a result of this we are looking for volunteers for a team that will be working on evaluating the potential for the incorporation of the genes that cause apoptosis overriding into a strain of modified Adenovirus as part of our study of potential methods for gene modification in existing organisms. Please respond if you are interested." A special team, she always wanted to be on a special team, it was a chance to stand out, to make herself someone worth watching, someone her advisors would approve of. She e-mailed Dr. Neilson back immediately requesting a place on the team.

After 5 hours of pacing, talking, drinking, and panicking, Penny was about to lose it, and Bernadette was about to fall asleep. It was only 8 o'clock, but it might as well have been 3 in the morning after listening to Amy freak out for this long, her statements making less and less sense as time went on. She was currently talking about Stewart's over active thyroid and whether or not it was actually a problem that needed attention, or mild enough to maintain her feeling of it being hot. If Penny cared enough, and Bernadette was awake she could ask Bernadette what Amy was talking about, but since neither of those was true, Amy continued to pace and ramble.

Sheldon was sitting on the couch watching the clock 8:59 he should be teeth brushed, on the way into bed right now, but he couldn't. He was stuck, he couldn't move if he wanted to. He was afraid that he would miss having Amy as his girlfriend. Maybe their relationship was something important to him. He sat watching the clock because he needed to think, he had to know if he would miss Amy. He could tell himself he didn't need her all he wanted, but even if he were able to convince himself, that didn't make it true. As he really thought about it, he thought about it for a while and then it hit him, the grief, all of the great moments they'd had since he met her. He quickly went off to bed, of course with a stop in the bathroom for frantic teeth brushing. After quickly setting the electronic toothbrush back into the UV light case and ran off to his room. As soon as he did he curled up in a ball as emotion flooded over him. He knew from the flat way she had broken up with him that she was done with him. The one thing he would ask for if he could was the reason why. The uncertainty hurt more than anything else, that she didn't care enough to explain the break up.

Penny and Bernadette were asleep. Amy realized this and knew exactly what she should do. She wanted to go to Stewart's right away and ask him to be her boyfriend. She knew she shouldn't drive, so she somehow made her way to a bus stop. Boarding the bus she made her way to the Comic book store, sure it wasn't open, but Stewart had mentioned late nights before. She saw him through the window he was asleep and the door was locked. She tried to open the door with her teeth, and after a few tries everything faded to black.

Amy had passed out on the comic book store door mat.

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Hey guys, I hope you like this so far, a lot happened in this chapter, and all of these little things will be wrapped up next chapter. I'm not going to be quite this fast next time, but soon, I promise! (Sorry, I just realized the dashes didn't transfer from word. I had to fix that.)


	3. Chapter 3

Hey, Sorry for the no update yesterday, but this chapter should be pretty good. Let me know what you think! (Sorry it's shorter than last time)

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Thursday, Pre Sunrise.

"WHERE'S AMY?!" Bernadette was aware of only those two words, those words and that she was awake. She snapped her eyes open to see Penny, who had a blanket in one hand and Amy's phone in the other. "Not Here?" She asked mindlessly, her voice weak. Everything past Penny looked blurry, so she had to check twice to make sure that she had her glasses on. Penny was looking down at her, with a look of urgency on her face. Bernadette couldn't quite place everything, why did it matter that Amy had gone home in the middle of the night. Amy rarely drank much, and she almost always went home.

"Penny, I think you had a bit too much to drink last ni-" Bernadette started before it all hit her at once. Amy broke up with Sheldon, the freaked out, Amy drank more than she ever did. This was bad. "No, No. NO! Is her car in the lot?" Bernadette yelled, though it made her head hurt. Touching her hand to her head as Penny replied.

"There we go you're up now, to the parking lot!" Penny said as she put on slippers and headed for the door. Bernadette had come in heels, straight from work, she didn't dare to walk down 4 flights of stairs in heels in this condition, so she walked out the door barefoot. She and Penny ran down the stairs. Her head was pounding, but she didn't care, her friend could be in serious trouble. By the time they reached the lobby Bernadette was basically just holding the back of Penny's shirt and running with her eyes closed. As the girls stepped outside she realized for the first time that it was still dark out.

"What time is it?" She gasped.

"About 3:19 am" Penny replied, as she spotted Amy's car, "Good so she's either still in the building, or she took a bus, or walked, how far could she be?"

They exchanged a nervous glance and ran back up the stairs, when they finally reached the 4th floor Bernadette could hardly move.

"SHELDON" Penny wailed pounding on the door. He finally opened it. "Is Amy here?"

Amy, they really thought she had come here. "No" he said wanting only to close the door. He couldn't take this, just the sound of her name made him want to cry. "Penny I need to talk to you." He said, Penny was good with all of the twaddle that girls and break ups caused.

"Well I have to see where a drunken Amy stumbled of to. Go talk to Alison. She's a lot like me. Tell her I sent you there, sure it will be a little odd given the time, but she's the best you've got." Penny said as they turned to run back down stairs again. He trusted Penny but he wasn't so sure that he could trust Alison yet.

"Are you sure?" He asked all she did was nod. He was standing in front of a near stranger's door, at 20 after 3 in the morning about to divulge his problems to her. It was crazy. He tried to convince himself to go back to bed, but he couldn't do it. Something made him knock, he figured if he knocked at an average volume then the decision wouldn't be his.

Knock, Knock, Knock… "ALISON!"

POUND POUND POUND… "ALISON!"

POUND POUND POUND… "ALISON!"

When she finally answered the door he said, "I am here because Penny sent me here."

"Well, come in, but really, could I have a little more detail?" She replied, groggily. Sheldon entered the apartment and began looking for a spot to sit. "Okay, so you are looking for something, but WHAT?" She asked him.

"The ideal seating location, giving the location of that heating vent and the angle of your television would you be willing to move the coffee table 9 centimeters to the left, and turn the couch 12 degrees clockwise?" He asked.

"Maybe later, so you're here to sabotage the first day I work at Caltech?" she asked.

"No, I'm here because I usually discus my relationship issues with Penny, but she had to go "see where a drunken Amy stumbled to" so she sent me to you saying that you two were very similar," he added.

"Okay, well why don't you sit here for like 5 minutes and then move if you don't like it. Now in the meantime would you like some tea?" She asked. That appeased his seating need, though when he sat down, though not perfect the location was tolerable enough that he got absorbed into talking that he forgot.

"What kind?" He asked.

"I don't know tea, tea…" She answered, and then inquired, "So what's up with this Amy chick?"

"Fine I'll drink the mystery tea. I see that you have been taught that is is customary to give upset guests hot beverages. She was my girlfriend, and she broke up with me today via video chat IM box, and I'm not sure how I feel about it." He said, accidentally omitting the part about the broken wire, not thinking it mattered enough to say.

"That bites!" She yelled, when she received only a puzzled expression in return, she added "Like Oh, gosh, how terrible!" trying to explain the phrase. Opening the tea packet as she added, "She didn't even care enough to say it to your face! That means either she's leaving you for someone else, or she really couldn't stand the relationship anymore."

Sheldon didn't know what to think anymore he sat nearly in tears, by the time the tea arrived, prepared with just sugar and two ice cubes he didn't notice that it wasn't right. He couldn't care.

Stewart woke up to see that he had fallen asleep behind the register again, his eyes darted to the door where a clearly drunk Amy Farrah Fowler sat knocking lightly on the bottom of the door. He rushed to the door. Unlocking it and opening the door, he reached down to the hand she was knocking with and pulled her up. "What happened?" He asked her.

"I… I needed to talk to you so I came here … at like 8 the door was closed so I couldn't get in. I think I passed out, so I don't know how long I've been out there." She managed to say, she looked dizzy, but with a certain determination to it. Maybe he had been fantasizing about their brief date, and wishing for more a little more than he thought...

"It's like 4 in the morning! What was so important?" He asked slightly concerned. They had gone in only one date, and Sheldon had interrupted that, asking her to be his girlfriend.

"Stewart Bloom, I have seen the terror in my jays. I broke up with Sheldon. I was wondering if you would object to a second date." She asked sincerely.

"You came all this way at this hour just to ask me out?" He asked, and when she nodded he agreed, "Well then of course! Umm do you need a ride back to somewhere?" This was amazing. He would finally have a chance to go out with Amy, with her entirely detached from Sheldon.

"My car is at Penny's… I might need to spend the night there…" She spoke slowly. He drove her to the building and walked her up the stairs. She said very little the whole time, when they arrived he kissed her forehead and she entered Penny's apartment, not aware that Penny was gone.

Usually this would be awkward, a stranger in her apartment in the middle of the night-morning. He was too distraught to care about that, he was looking for a substitute Penny, a role she appeared to be able to play. Penny had sent him here and so she had to try to solve his girl problems. She couldn't, it didn't come so naturally to her, Penny actually was the crazy, formerly popular relationship master that Sheldon needed to talk to. Alison was not even close. She tried to remember high school, but would that really help? She had been semi-popular, but other than more than the necessary amount of gossip she hadn't had any situations that would help here.

"Well, you don't appear to be the type who approves of alcohol consumption, so think of it this way, She breaks up with you over IM, she then gets drunk, and runs off, to do who knows what. You are a man of acute scientific ability, what is there to be stuck on there?" She asked flatly. He looked up at her with pained eyes as if that didn't help. "Okay well you could run out there, and try to find the girl, who has so clearly rejected you, and beg her to take you back, now how would that work?" She suggested sarcastically.

"Assuming you have correctly assessed the situation that would be totally illogical." He said lifting his face out of the warm steam evaporating from the tea. Illogical, a word that has been used twice in two brief conversations between her and Sheldon, she chose it for her habitual over use of logic, but the way he said it, it struck her. It was purposeful; it felt special, even though it was only a word. She was taken back. She hadn't seriously proposed the idea, so it certainly looked odd for her to hesitate something like that.

"So you have to move on, right. Did she say why she broke it off?" She asked, and he only shook his head. "Hmm, that makes this a little harder. Well, if this was a developing relationship it's not too surprising, how did you meet, how close were you?" She didn't want to pry, but she had to ask a few questions in order to help.

"Some of my friends signed me up on a dating site, against my will I might add, and we met officially at a coffee shop. She only became my official girlfriend to keep her from dating someone else. I would have wanted her to remain my friend who is a girl, but isn't my girlfriend, free from the obligations of an official relationship, but clearly that wasn't good enough for her. " He explained.

"Well, it sounds like she was taking things too fast, and trying to make you jealous. Maybe you should give it about a month, and then patch up the friendship. Then keep it like that, as a friendship," She suggested, "And remember, neither one of us will make any great contributions to science if we stay up all night." She said smiling. When he left she had to call Penny. "Penny, I know you're worried about your friend but you have to realize that even though I handled the situation I'm not you! And Amy came loudly up the stairs with some other person about 20 minutes ago." she said as soon as Penny picked up.

"I know, but he's a crazy scientist, what do crazy scientists need when they have relationship issues? You, you understand me, the situation, and crazy nerd types." Penny replied, as she and Bernadette started to drive back.

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There is a painful amount of foreshadowing in the last POV. I promised myself I wouldn't cram something so full of hidden details, but I did. (Hopefully I cloaked it well enough that you won't all get it) :P More next Chapter 3


	4. Chapter 4

I hope you like this chapter! Another long one for you, and I won't be able to do another chapter at all this weekend. Enjoy this one though!

More crazy drama, in the conclusion of Thursday!

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Leonard was concerned, Sheldon had left the apartment in the middle of the night, the opening and closing of doors woke him up, but it worried him because of the break up, he had been too lazy to get up and check on him afterwards, but it had been worth getting up 5 minutes early. He rolled out of bed and walked to the kitchen. Sheldon was in the early phases of breakfast preparation. "It's anything can happen Thursday!" Leonard said reminding Sheldon. Sheldon disliked the day, but he had gotten a little bit used to it. Raj nearly always went to a bar, trying to drag Howard or himself along. Generally it filled its role, a day free of Sheldon's crazy strict schedule.

"Oh great, the day when we throw routine to the wind and "let loose" Yay!" Sheldon used sarcasm correctly, Sheldon usually tried to keep the schedule, but with only him, it could be difficult.

"So, um where exactly did you go last night?" Leonard asked curiously.

"I visited our neighbor; she had some helpful suggestions for my Amy situation. Did you know that she works at Caltech, she really doesn't seem the type, but I guess if Howard can work there I guess there must be quite a margin of intelligence…" Sheldon rambled.

"Oh, well that's interesting, but why at 3 in the morning?" He shouted.

"I wanted to talk to Penny, Penny had to go look for Amy." He explained, unconcerned. The fact that Amy ran off should have sent up a red flag for Sheldon, but I guess it just seemed like normal ex-girlfriend behavior to him. I Penny broke up with him, and then Amy and Bernadette had to hunt her down he would want to go with them, not chat with the neighbor. Sheldon will be Sheldon though.

Amy woke up to see Bernadette had stayed the night here, and so had she. "Guys?" She squeaked.

"Yeah, you had a rough night… Stewart called your cell about an hour ago. I told him you were still sleeping, he said that you had taken the bus to the comic book store, and asked him out, but neither of you had thought to make plans for the date. Bernadette and I were worried when you left…" Penny explained.

"I ran up and down four flights of stairs twice barefoot with a pounding headache for you, not to mention calling the bus station and driving around town yelling "AMY" which only made my head hurt worse!" Bernadette scolded, "How dare you scare us like that!"

"Sorry" Amy whispered. Her head hurt, and she couldn't remember anything but breaking up with Sheldon.

"You're fine, and that's what matters, but you really could have left a note…" Penny reassured her, "I'm driving you to work at noon, Bernadette is going to work now, and you need to get some sleep." Closing her eyes it was good to have 4 extra hours to sleep.

Alison opened the door to see Penny standing behind it, "So I just need to know what you told Sheldon…" she demanded. This wasn't surprising; Penny had sent him to her door for advice, so Penny needed to know what he had been told, so she could provide further advice later.

"I basically told him that Amy was a totally wrong for dumping him like that, and that he should move on since she was pushing the relationship along faster than he was ready for." She summarized leaning with one hand on the door jam.

"WHAT?" Penny wailed.

"She ended the relationship over IM! And I think that was pretty accurate. Now Penny, if you don't mind I can't be late for work, it's my first day." She said. This day meant everything to her; she had wanted to be a real scientist, since the first grade. She didn't know much about careers in science, but she knew she loved science more than breathing. She didn't start to iron out the details for years, but it has been a dream of hers for so long. She forced her way out the door, walking down the stairs, she stated "We can talk about this later," knowing that Penny clearly wanted them to get back together someday, Alison shook her head. That sounded like a bad idea, she knew so little, but from what Sheldon said it was destined to fail from the beginning. "Dating Sites, Really!" She mumbled as she reached the door, silently promising she wouldn't ever use them. She drove to work, she decided to try to take her lunch break at the same time Sheldon did, if she could manage that.

As she drove to work thinking about it all, this was another huge day! The day she actually would be a scientist. When she really thought about it she felt like she couldn't breathe. In moments like that it was all she could do not to let out a high pitched squeal and flail her arms uncontrollably. This always happened when she dug a little too deep. She hid her love of science to escape a bully once. They became friends, and she was to young and naive to notice, but she stayed like that until the bubble finally broke. She stayed thinking about her past until she pulled into Caltech. Opening the doors she took a deep breath. This was it. Three million times more nerve-racking than her first day of high school, that was another huge day for her, she had been identified for a special program for students with "particular interest and ability" for science. This was the fulfillment of her dreams.

"Dr. Alison Carter, reporting for my first day of work" She said proudly to the receptionist who looked up with disinterest. She looked at her and said, "That way, Third floor, Elevator is Broken." Alison hardly cared that she would have to run up 3 flights of stairs in heels, nothing could faze her today. She opened the door and began the journey up the stairwell.

Sheldon couldn't think about anything other than Alison's advice. If Penny had work in the morning she wouldn't have taken the time to talk to him, but Alison did, and she was almost a stranger. She told him to give up, and it made sense the relationship was completely shattered, maybe he could be her friend again sometime. He tried to go over the list of negatives, she always wanted to hold his hand, to cuddle, and she didn't care about star trek, and hated comic books, actually those were the only ones that stood out… That felt about right for a casual friendship but not a romantic relationship. He tried to focus on his work, but it didn't feel like the time. It all felt wrong. Breathing even felt wrong, he had no ideas for what he needed to be doing, but he knew it wasn't work. Then he realized, Howard was going on a date with Bernadette, Leonard was going to the movies with Penny, and Raj would be in an alcohol filled death trap. All of his friends were busy… Then the name hit him. He would call Stewart; they could watch the super hero movie of Stewart's choice and have a small pizza. That would be as close to normal as he could get! He picked up the phone and dialed the comic book store number.

"Stewart, how would you like to come over to my place for pizza? We could watch a movie and finally get to know each other," he proposed trying to sound genuine, rather than desperate. He couldn't sit alone tonight, usually there wouldn't be any problem with a night of peace, but he needed someone tonight. He was still to shaken up about the whole Amy situation.

"Actually I can't, I've got a date tonight. Amy and I are going to a nice dinner!" he declined. Sheldon knew Stewart didn't mean to hurt him, but it did, it hurt. Sheldon hung up the phone unable to manage any kind of a farewell. Amy was dating Stewart.

"Dr. Carter! I'm so glad to see that you made it," Dr. Neilson greeted her enthusiastically offering a handshake, which Alison returned without hesitation.

"I'm not late am I?" She questioned fiddling for her watch.

"No, actually, quite early, I wanted to ask you if you would lead this team. I took a look at your resume, and I think that, while you aren't the most experienced on the team, you are certainly the most capable," He complemented her with a smile that confirmed that it was genuine.

"Really? I'd be honored!" Alison accepted blushing, sure that her face was as bright as her neon pink nail polish.

"Great, the team should be here soon, 5 teammates that you will lead. You have the final decision, but clearly someone as humble as you won't be making many choices single handedly. There is a project packet in the lab," He explained as he opened the door to a bright, glimmering, clean work space. She closed the door and pressed her head into the hard wood of the lab door. Clenching her fists and squealing. This wasn't a dream. Her dreams never made her team leader. She couldn't wait to meet the team, 5 likeminded people that she would have the honor of collaborating with! She hadn't ever had that. In all of high school she only ever met one person who was entirely likeminded, and she moved to New York after Junior Year! This would be beyond incredible! She straitened her clothes and hair then opened the door to await the team.

What arrived was less than encouraging. A troop of people, her age or only slightly older, messy haired people, and the most exciting color anyone was wearing was lavender. She tried not to let it worry her.

"Hello everyone, it's great to see so many bright, shining faces on this team. It will be a great experience to work with every one of you, and I look forward to meeting you all!" she exclaimed grinning. No one moved, no one smiled, but one girl spoke up and said, "I hope you realized we are just working the dangerous section of a senior project. The university can't risk that their precious geniuses get sick right before the nationally televised conference, so they give the risky work in close contact with pathogens to a bunch of newbies."

"Don't think of it like that, for all they know we could be every bit as brilliant as the senior team, we just haven't had the chance to prove it yet. So being given such an advanced project is an extreme honor! And just so you all know I volunteered for this team! Maybe someday you will see that you don't get to be leader by taking the easiest job they will assign to you. You have to put yourself out there and give your Bosses a reason why you stand out, now let's get to work!" She said trying to perk them up a bit.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZ

Penny had driven Amy to work, and she looked a lot better than she had this morning. She was glad that she would be going on a date with Stewart, that would end the relationship drama for Amy, but how would Sheldon take the news. She couldn't imagine him taking it well… He'd probably just freak out, and no matter how crazy he is she couldn't stand to see him upset. She couldn't believe Alison had just told him to move on; he had loved Amy with at least a tiny part of his heart. Maybe he didn't see it; maybe he doesn't know what love feels like, but she could tell that there was something between them that might have been worth saving. Then again, maybe not, Sheldon was Sheldon; he knew how to handle himself alone.

Sheldon leapt off to lunch as soon as it was time. He wanted his friends, they'd know what to say. He wanted to cry again, for the second day in a row he was crying over Amy. It scared him to think it but maybe he was in love with her, in love despite her flaws, he desires, maybe it was all real. She really had liked Stewart, and Alison had been right, she had left him for someone else. He remembered the day that he asked her to be his girlfriend, she was on a date with Stewart, he entered the dark movie theater with the specific intention of asking her out, just so that she wouldn't leave him for Stewart.

She had used some kind of mental attachment that he had for her, exploited it to get him to move the relationship forward. She had only wanted to make him jealous back then, but now, she wouldn't need that. He felt betrayed. Stewart had accepted a date right after the break up. He had trusted her, and now it was all over. He wasn't sure he would ever want to be her friend again now. He didn't want to be alone tonight. Picking up a tray of food he started out of the cafeteria, not ready to face his friends.

After hours of staring at the computer screen and microscope, it was finally lunchtime. She was late, she might miss Sheldon. "Okay, guys, tomorrow is Friday! Certainly you will be excited for the weekend, Right? So I want to see bright colors, smiling faces. Lab 305! TGIF! TGIF!" She chanted giving it all one last attempt to rally enthusiasm from her dull colleagues. Then she sprinted off to the cafeteria trying to catch Sheldon. Looking down at her phone she crashed right into Sheldon leaving the cafeteria with a tray of food.

"Oh gosh, you probably hate me right now," she said as a glass bottle of iced tea hit the ground, shattering everywhere, "This is the second day I've run into you too, I'll buy you a new tea," She apologized. The janitor arrived to clean it up, mumbling profanity under his breath. "I'm so sorry!" She gasped trying to make eye contact, though he intentionally avoided her.

After Alison had bought her lunch and replaced Sheldon's tea, she asked, "Is there anything I could do to make it up to you?"

"Well actually, if you would be willing I need a ride to and from work up until the conference; my usual ride has to catch up on missed work overtime before the convention." He asked looking right at her, but softly.

"I could definitely manage that." She agreed happily, "We live right next to each other, and work at the same place; it's no trouble at all." Alison left the cafeteria and ended up eating in an empty conference room. It would have been awkward to sit with Sheldon at lunch then, friendships have to form slowly. That would have been too much at once.

After work Sheldon rode home with Alison. She was clearly stressed out. "So like I go into work, it's my first day so I'm like thrilled beyond words, then the head of the department chooses ME as the lead of the team, and we are like working on a fragment of a senior project, and I'm overjoyed, but like my team is to boring, I was picturing 5 mes in there, and I get a bunch of grey clothed, messy haired, people who will hardly smile. No matter what I did they were just like sucking the enthusiasm out of the air. Then I crash into you, again," He thought she was almost smiling when she got there, "and make a huge mess. Sorry about that by the way, and then the grouchy janitor… I was so embarrassed I ate in a conference room. Then it was back into nofunville…" She just talked the whole way home.

When they pulled up to the building he blurted out, "Amy's going on a date with Stewart."

She gasped and wailed, "NO WAY! Sorry, I probably sounded ridiculous in the car… It's just this whole day has felt like high school…"

"Understandable, though I never went to high school…" He said, as they started up the stairs.

"Really, I didn't go to regular high school, but it was at a regular high school… If that makes any sense… I guess they figured that high school was important." She explained.

"Would you be interested in pizza?" He invited her, "My friends are ALL off on dates."

"Sure, want to come over to my place, I have to unpack some more stuff, but I wouldn't mind company…" She asked.

"Great!" Sheldon loved organizing things; this would be a refreshing change of pace for anything can happen Thursday.

The pizza had arrived and they were unloading her clothes. No matter how awkward an activity would be for strangers usually it wasn't with him. It felt different; he didn't have of the things that made interactions awkward. He didn't have any of the things she fed off of in high school, she sought out people who know the social rules and followed them like it was life or death, and she figured that was the only way she could learn. They made it hard to really hang out though. She spent the better part of four years in two worlds. The science world that she dreamed in, and the social jungle that she fought for survival in. When she was around Sheldon they blended into one, she wasn't stuck fighting for balance on the line.

He was a genius when it came to organizing, she had insisted on paying for the pizza, but he seemed puzzled when she explained that it was because he was doing all of this, but eventually conceded. They spent hours moving things around, not caring what time it was. Eventually they realized that it was nearly 11 and he went back to his apartment.

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(Dawww, everyone is coupled off right now… Well Raj is loose in a bar, but it counts.) I'm sorry, but there won't be another update all weekend. So sorry.


	5. Chapter 5

I for the life of me can't figure out why it isn't taking my dashes. I'm going to start using {Character Name} for POV changes now, I will try to fix the other chapters later. A most of the beginning of this chapter is in multiple flash backs.

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{Alison}

As she stood in front of Penny's door she thought about the past few minutes as she stood with her head pinned to her arm.

She had been thinking, about why she couldn't stop thinking about Sheldon. It had been a long exasperating day at work; her colleagues were about as responsive as a dead gerbil. No matter what she did they just stared at the data and suggested possible findings in a monotonous voice. Half of them were only somewhat plausible. They had stared at the altered DNA of the modified pathogen, compared to the natural form, and the cancer cell's DNA for uncountable hours. The convention was 10 days away. At least that was exciting, if they only had some data worth presenting. By the end of the day it was decided that they would observe the virus on Monday. Staring at an electronic representation of the genetic material of a DNA virus would only go so far, as risky as it was they knew they would have to do it eventually. If they weren't a toss-out team whose time was being sacrificed for the sake of Caltech's senior geneticists, they would have a sit in microbiologist to supervise their observation but the microbiologists at Caltech were too busy with their own convention project to worry about this insignificant team.

The convention was being held at a huge convention center about 80 miles away. Not a terrible drive, but she was certainly glad that this counted as her convention prep activity. Caltech was hosting it; it was set to be huge. A nationally televised science convention at the end of the summer, a new batch of students entering many levels of studies, and she got to be a tiny little piece in the mesh that made it all possible. Lots of people had to drive up on next Thursday to set up things, everyone else got to have until the following Tuesday off. Sure they would be paid overtime, but even after so few days with her team she would need a vacation. She knew that she could do way better on her own.

Alison hated group work; this felt like high school, she got stuck with a terrible group, except she couldn't go beg the teacher to let her work alone this time. However, she was determined that when the final conclusion was reached she would be the person who said it. That was all she needed, she was already team leader, if she solved a senior problem she would be promoted for sure! Yes, just like high school, make the best of it, become the teacher's favorite and get to work on your own for future projects. Except this wasn't high school. This wasn't collage, this was life. She had always pictured that she would have everything altogether, that as soon as she got her dream job she would just do It, she imagined herself as an overly dedicated researcher that practically lived at work.

But as she stood in her living room planning for a movie marathon in her pajamas with microwavable chicken for diner, she could see that it wouldn't be that easy. She would be forced into further social interaction. Living across from Penny and next to someone as perfectly friendly as Sheldon, she couldn't very well ignore them and try to just live an anti-social life. It wouldn't work out, so she would have to stay frozen in that crazy place she managed through high school in. She was a cheerleader, she was almost halfway popular, but she was still brilliant and overly analytical. She wanted to escape it all because it was just too much.

She had to study more for social situations a million times longer than she ever did for social studies. Social studies was easy, all she had to do was remember facts, names, dates, and vocabulary words and she got an A, even if she lost every single homework for a month, that's why she hated it, but it left her time to day dream about her future, this future. That was something that social situations never gave her, they only made her jealous of the people who interact so naturally, who don't have to memorize lists of rules, based on their own observations, and keep them in mind at all times in order to keep themselves from looking like a complete idiot, the people who could walk up to a group of people and make friends with all of them in under a minute.

Now that she saw that life was pushing her back to that way of thinking, interacting with people in such a forced strategic way, she wanted that to be over. Her mom always said that the hardest part of moving out would be the money and housework. The funny part was that that she never even tried to survive social situations; of course she would name such matter of fact things as difficult. She almost wanted to be real world best friends with Penny, and her brain wouldn't let her ignore Sheldon, that she would have to look at later, but she had to wrap her mind around her list of rules again, to get used to that feeling, the perky, but not overly enthusiastic way that she used to live.

Sheldon Cooper. He didn't seem to care about those rules, but he still interacted with people, but without hiding himself. Every step he took was entirely authentic. He had friends, he had his way, and he had his brilliance. She had denied herself of all of that. So seeing him living so freely gave her the same squashing feeling that girly pop music and science fiction gave her, it was just too much.

At that moment she decided to change into her pajamas. She pulled her shirt off, but if only she had had the focus to realize that she had been wearing a crop top over a camisole. She had gotten her head stuck in the arm strap; she had only ever done this once. She knew exactly what to do, but she couldn't see to do it. She knew that she'd have to run across the hall to the only person she trusted entirely. Penny. She opened the door and stepped out into the hall only a moment before Sheldon. Her head firmly stuck to her arm, and cami pulled up, only covering her bra, crop top oddly looped over one arm and her head. She was mortified. Flopping her arm over her head to straighten out a bit, she desperately verbalized, "So, I'm on my way over to visit Penny," She knocked on the door three times and called "Penny?" before asking, "What are you doing?"

"I'm just going to get the mail." Before adding

(Three Knocks) "Penny?"

(Three Knocks) "Penny?"

And going down the stairs.

He continued her knocking, he had knocked that pattern three times on her door, the way he lived so fearlessly, not afraid to do anything his way, regardless of what the world thought, and it didn't stand out in a bad way. It was exactly what she wished she could be. She bit into the inside of her cheek, fighting the urge to squeal, refusing to think about anything but getting unstuck. But it was never that easy.

When Penny reached the door she squeaked out, "I am going to explode!" She couldn't tell Penny why, she didn't dare to speak the thoughts that she concealed since the eighth grade to someone who she met for real just 3 days earlier.

"So is that because you're tied up, or Dr. Whackadoodle is talking your ears off?" Penny laughed.

"Sheldon is Dr. Whackdoodle! I assumed that that was Leonard!" Alison wailed in shock. Ever since Penny heard that Alison was moving to Pasadena she had been telling her about the people here.

At hearing that Penny looked equally surprised shouting, "Leonard is my boyfriend! Why would I think that he is crazy?"

"Ummmmmm, Even I know the answer to that…." She wailed in reply.

"What part of 'Dr. Whackdoodle is driving me crazy, Sheldon won't shut up about some weird physics crap' sounds like Leonard is Dr. Whackadoodle?"

"Well I have always used the suffix –doodle as a term of endearment, and they sound like two different statements! Now can you please get me untangled before he comes back up here and sees me like this AGAIN?" She wailed frantically. Penny pulled her inside and loosened the strap so that Alison could get her head back through with minimal damage to her hairstyle. Then after a few minutes they had the whole thing straightened out. She darted across the hall and took of the tank top, changing into her pajamas. So much for movie night.

{Sheldon}

Carrying the mail up the stairs he couldn't stop his mind from wandering to Alison. She seemed so startled, and disheveled. He made a mental note to visit her after vintage game night; Raj wouldn't be able to make it, and he definitely wouldn't ask Stewart to fill in. He never planned to speak to him again. Maybe Alison could be number 4 for the day. He knocked on her door.

(Three knocks) "Alison"

(Three knocks) "Alison"

(Three knocks) "Alison"

"Is this about earlier? Or did you leave something in my car?" She asked she almost looked worried.

"No, I was inviting you to fill in for Raj for vintage video game night. Raj apparently hit it off with some girl somewhere and managed to get a date tonight. I won't be inviting Stewart for obvious reasons, and the other girls have proven themselves to be terrible playmates." He says and penny opens her door only to yell, "Only cuz I creamed you!" before closing it again.

"I think that would be nice" She said smiling.

{Leonard}

When Alison came over she announced that she had a particular dislike for Chinese food. He couldn't believe she didn't think before opposing Sheldon. They argued for over twenty minutes until she explained that it was because of all of the foods that were meat, and also sweet, namely orange chicken.

"It drives me crazy, it's like Cinnamon bread without sugar, if something is sweet it should be obvious, food needs to make up its mind!" She yelled, "Would you want a pizza flavored Popsicle? Or how about Meatloaf Ice cream? Pickle Flavored Cake? No that all sounds completely disgusting! So if sweet foods shouldn't be savory than why is it okay for savory foods to be sweet!?"

Somehow Sheldon pulled something satisfactory out of Alison's screaming and stated "That is logical." He still ate his chicken, he genuinely likes the chicken, but if he or Howard had thrown a fit like that they would still be forced into the routine until Sheldon changed the food plans on his own.

By the time they came to an agreement about the foods Howard was about to lose it. He whispered that this was worse than watching Sheldon and Amy's first meeting, than at least it was how well they got along that was disturbing, not how much they both so deeply cared about something so stupid. Leonard was also somewhat in shock that someone had gotten through to Sheldon. Sure it wasn't in a way that he or Howard could ever hope to replicate, but it proved that Sheldon was only so firm, that there is in fact a limit. All this time Sheldon's logic had been the top authority, but maybe it wasn't entirely set.

Alison had changed Sheldon's mind, she had won an argument with the great Sheldon Cooper, king of childish tantrums. Now clearly that meant that she shared a common thread, and she had her own pile of crazy, but she had made an independent decision and gone through with it. And Sheldon eventually let her.

{Alison}

As she lied in bed, well rather on top of the bed, she was thinking about game night. They hadn't gotten to play for very long after their argument, but it had been really fun. Logical. He had said it again, he had it set in his mind that she would eat the chicken, but when she gave her reasons, he accepted them, took them to be enough. He had approved, and said that her desire not to have sweet chicken was logical. The others had looked like he never backed down, like he never took anything but his way, she didn't doubt that, so it felt good to know that she had made sense, the way it happened it felt like a mark of approval to be deemed logical. She drifted off to sleep, still in her clothes, onto of the blankets, feeling for once in her life like she truly belonged somewhere around people.

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I hope you can relate with Alison at least a little bit, I'm glad to hear that a lot of you like her! (Yes, Raj gets attention later, but he has to be out a little now in order for my plans to work for later.)

Until the next update,

1Shimmer


	6. Chapter 6

Not much is going to happen for Sheldon and Alison, this chapter. Sorry for the wait, I promise there will be faster ones next week.

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{Penny}

Amy had driven to Penny's at such a time that she would arrive at exactly 11 am. After knocking on the door, Penny opened it and asked "So, how was your date with Stewart?"

"Great! We ended up going on a picnic on the boardwalk; I almost got hit by a bicycle, but Stewart rushed in and pushed me out of the way. We watched the sunset together, his arm around me, and my head on his shoulder, just like in the movies! Sheldon never did anything like that." Amy summarized excitedly as she walked into Penny's apartment.

Penny was thrilled to hear that she was totally over Sheldon. She had moved on and found someone who understood her better. Stewart wasn't afraid to try to be romantic, even if it would fail, though from the excited way Amy was talking he had hit it on the nose. "That's wonderful!" Penny exclaimed giving Amy a hug. "Do you wonder at all how Sheldon is taking it?" Penny inquired, curious to see if her friend wanted to know.

"I don't want to know if he's heartbroken. Is he taking it better than I did?" Amy asked, trying to give Penny an option to answer without making her feel guilty. If she felt bad about leaving Sheldon it would ruin her new relationship with Stewart.

"Well, he took it really hard at first, but there was no alcohol involved. Alison talked to him. I guess she said something that helped. They've been hanging out lately, she filled in for Raj on game night, he helped her unpack on Thursday, and she's driving him to and from work in place of Leonard while he works on something sciencey for the weird convention thingy. I don't think they have any relational intentions, just a crazy scientist and a slightly less crazy scientist helping each other out a little." Penny told Amy the whole truth. She couldn't deny that Alison was pretty. Her light brown hair and dark blue eyes, her hair naturally straight, she was pretty.

Sheldon didn't see that though, he didn't care that she had the physical attributes of an ex-cheerleader, she wasn't short, but not at all tall. Just a little shorter than average, but she was thin, a high metabolism from 5 years of athleticism. Not overly curvy, but with her natural light weight and thin bone structure, she looked balanced. It was almost a shame that she had given it all up to become a scientist. Sheldon wouldn't ever see those things about her; as far as nerds go she was gorgeous, and pretty by any standards, Sheldon would only care if she was smart. Penny knew Sheldon, and she knew Alison, she had no way of knowing them together yet, but they were both scientists, she wasn't in physics; Sheldon would have less to compare her to.

Penny couldn't help but think that they would make an adorable couple. They both had their own piles of crazy, though Sheldon was entirely fearless about it, and she was soft and well-mannered in company, but when you got to know her she had her own set of quirks. Penny didn't dare to tell Alison that though.

{Amy}

"That's great news. He has a new friend, I have a prospective boyfriend!" Amy sighed, relieved to hear that she had nothing to worry about, "All Sheldon really saw in me was a friend who he could get to take up the roles that kept his world in order when his friends got sick of it. If Alison will do that for him without requiring a fancy title, then I have no reason to feel guilty about breaking up with him."

It almost hurt to say that. It was true; Sheldon just wanted her to fill a set of contractual obligations. He had only agreed to call her his girlfriend so she would do that. Maybe he had felt something deeper, but all Amy knew was that he didn't act like it at all. She was just a role to him, nothing more, but without her he didn't have a backup friend to lean on.

Stewart, he had made a bold attempt at romance, and he had made her feel special. That was all she wanted, to feel like she was valued as a person. She wanted to be more than a robotic substitute for Sheldon's companions, responsible for splinters and emergency driving. Stewart made her feel loved, he hadn't been opposed to physical contact, but he didn't overwhelm her either. It felt perfect, the moment under the sunset the chilly ocean breeze still blowing towards the land, though it threatened to switch directions within the hour and stick her hair to the lip-gloss that Penny had expertly applied to her just for the date.

He had put his arm around her at the perfect moment, the sun slipping towards the horizon and starting to turn the sky a peachy orange color. All of the facts regarding the color of the sky and the direction at which seaside breezes blow released. She melted into the moment and rested her head on his shoulder. They watched the sun set, it was beautiful. As the last part of the sun dropped below the horizon he kissed her on the forehead again. As if he didn't dare to drift any closer to her lips, he always kissed her forehead. She had looked into his eyes and the moment had felt perfect. She kissed his lips, and he didn't seem alarmed at all, reaching up to hold the back of her head. It was a short kiss, but still the sweet ending that the perfect moment deserved.

Sheldon had his structural needs filled by a new girl, Alison would figure out the rules to Sheldon's world, and she would enjoy her new relationship with Stewart. Everything was falling into place. She decided that her relationship with Sheldon was just a painful mistake. It seems like everyone makes them. Penny had Kurt, and she had Sheldon. As long as Alison didn't let herself fall in love with Sheldon there wouldn't be any problems. As soon as she let herself slip there was no way out, but as long as they kept a plutonic relationship they could enjoy each other's company without getting too caught up on something that wasn't there.

{Howard}

If Raj hadn't bumped into Lucy there wouldn't have been any reason for him to miss vintage game night, things would have gone like any other Friday night. Sheldon wouldn't have needed a substitute player 4. Or if Penny hadn't creamed Sheldon the last time she played video games with the group he might have picked her. If he and Amy were still together Amy would have been called in to play. Why didn't Sheldon just call and invite Bernadette, sure she wasn't the best, but it would have been less irritating than hearing Alison and Sheldon fight over whether or not Alison had to eat the chicken.

If only the food order wasn't so deeply preset. Then they could have made a slight modification to the order and avoided the whole thing. Howard now had a reason to be mad at the comic book store. Sure it was great that Raj now had a girlfriend, of sorts… But was it really worth all of this trouble! The way he felt watching them argue it wasn't like when he and his mother argued. It wasn't like when Penny and Leonard argued. It was crazy real, they fought in such an intense manner that he had to remind himself several times that they were arguing over who would eat chicken, from the way he could tell they were thinking it seemed as if they were debating theories of everything, and she had said that she didn't think string theory was correct. No even that would warrant a less intense argument. They were deeply invested in their opinions; she had dared to state hers, something no one ever did. Although her final statement was impressive, over exaggerated yet reasonable, it shined the spotlight on her point and made Sheldon think. She appeared to be a seasoned veteran in arguments.

If someone can get their way against Sheldon in an argument, no matter how small it really is has to be good. She could be dangerous, she might change Sheldon, and sure that seems like it would be good, but Sheldon should be left unharmed by relationships. Sheldon was Sheldon. No matter how annoying he is, he is brilliant, crazy but brilliant. Then again, she might take some of the pressure off of the group while leaving him fundamentally unchanged. Maybe she was exactly what Sheldon needs.

* * *

Sorry about the short chapter, I really haven't had the time to write for the past few days, plus this was hard for me to write, as it was purely insight into other characters thoughts about Alison and Sheldon. I promise there will be some cute moments soon!


	7. Chapter 7

With this chapter come old promises, church and chess. Also known as Sunday.

* * *

{Alison}

Sunday morning. This was her first Sunday morning in California. She had promised her mother that when she moved to Pasadena she wouldn't let church slip out of her priorities. As a girl Alison had loved church. She had gone to an amazing church, she loved it because the people were incredible friends and like family, they couldn't hate her, no matter what she did. Most importantly instead of sitting still for 2 hours every Sunday there were funny skits with bright costumes and games and small groups. It gave her something to love about it. Sure when she hit high school in leveled out to a more adult service, but church was deeply engrained into her mind. That's why it was 6 am on Sunday and she was awake.

She had to go to church. She had to find a church. She had only been in California since Wednesday; she couldn't even find a burger king, let alone a church she could go to. She couldn't let this week go, she had to make a habit of going, rather than not going. She couldn't break her mother's promise on her 5th day in Pasadena. Her mother had been the craziest, least analytical person she had ever known for more than 6 years, but she loved her, and she deserved to know that her daughter was doing the right thing, even though she was over 2,500 miles away.

Penny, she doesn't seem like the churchy type. Penny wouldn't know where to go. Sheldon, he was the only other neighbor she knew, she had a terrible feeling about it as she knocked three times and called Sheldon. It was just a habit of hers, three knocks felt the most natural, and especially considering the fact that Sheldon had a roommate, it was helpful to not only identify herself by voice, but also announce the person who she needed to speak with. Though she couldn't figure out why, Sheldon knocked from the inside of the door.

(Three knocks) "Sheldon"

(Three Knocks) "Sheldon"

Before he opened it.

Only hesitating slightly at this she began, "Sheldon, do you know of a church-"

"I do not regularly attend church, I do not object to the concept of a deity, however I find it unnecessary to make regular attendance a priority." He replied cutting her off.

"Okay, well, I kind of have to, even if it's just for my mother. I promised her that when I was finally living my dreams as a scientist, I wouldn't abandon the one who put me there." She explained. Though it didn't seem like her mother to insist on things so early. Just 5 days…

{Leonard}

Leonard stumbled into the room a second too late. That kept happening, Alison was too fast. It was too early. He usually had an opportunity to warn people before they blindly walked into topics that Sheldon was known to lecture on. He always missed that with her. It was too late.

"Well, what do you do?" Alison asked her voice was soft, as if she had decided that she had fulfilled her portion of the commitment for the day, provided that she actually cared about the answer that was a safe question. Leonard had to get good at identifying people's emotions and intentions. If he hadn't he could be sure he would have been sued before. Alison wasn't necessarily careless as to Sheldon's existence and actions. She hadn't cared about having her privacy invaded, but had thrown a fit over chicken… She wasn't apathetic, Sheldon as a general rule displayed no emotion, but he could tell Alison had feelings, she didn't respond to them very much, but either she felt something or she was a better actress than Penny. She was expressive, that was it. He doubted that even Sheldon could miss her facial expressions. He had to see something, even if he didn't know what to do with the knowledge, Sheldon had to see it, the way she moved.

Maybe Sheldon needed a little extra help learning about other people's emotions. The way she always wore bright colored eye shadow, the way she spoke with her eyes. Her eyes demanded attention. She had spent the past 5 days doing a better job meshing into the schedule of Sheldon Cooper better than any of the others ever had. Sheldon accepted her as a person. He clearly though that she could learn all of the rules. That was a step in the right direction. He had to know what Penny though of the chance that they could form a relationship. It seemed both perfect and designed to fail. She had been involved in group activities more than Raj for the past 5 days. She had taken up the duty of driving Sheldon to and from work, he couldn't help but laugh remembering when Howard tell the story of the time he drove Sheldon home on a moped. Sure he had a car now, but Sheldon never forgets anything. Would he really enter that with an open mind?

{Alison}

"Howard and Bernadette struggle to agree on a place of worship, then blow it off and have breakfast, I believe this week Howard intends on bagels, but he tends to change his mind. Penny won't be up until noon. Amy and Stewart are not of my concern any more. I haven't heard from Raj since Friday at work. Leonard and I will be playing Chess." He stated flatly.

"Chess huh? I used to know… I think now I'd be quite lucky to know anything more than the basic facts," she replied smiling, as she tried to think of everything she knew about chess. She knew the piece names and the general rules about motion, but seeing as she never had any one to play against she knew nothing more than the facts.

"We could always break out the three way board!" Sheldon nearly yelled, she hadn't ever seen him this thrilled.

"That would be great, but I might need a bit of a refresher…" She added stepping inside.

"You'll need more than that," Leonard sighed as he held up a plastic piece to demonstrate his point, "This is the jet pack."

"Leonard you promised to let me explain the rules the next time we had a guest player!" Sheldon wailed.

"I was merely providing an introduction. You may begin," Leonard exhaled the words with little enthusiasm."

Sheldon explained the long complicated rules; by the end she wasn't sure there was any point to the game other than remembering them all.

"So just to be absolutely clear, the objective is still to cause checkmate. No hidden goal that I have to pull out of all of that? No matter how hard I try I will never get all of that right…" She inquired with a dazed expression on her face.

"I have an eidetic memory. You and Leonard on the other hand for some unknown reason are unable to remember a simple set of directions regarding the motion of several fairy pieces…"

"Don't worry he had to tell me 4 times before I got it all… Don't feel bad." Leonard stated in an attempt to prevent distress.

"No, I think I get it, just one thing… What exactly is a fairy piece?" She asked blindly unaware of the obvious answer. "Wait… Don't tell me. Based on the provided information is that the Golf Cart, Serpent, Gorilla and Such? The ones you added?"

With a distressed look he exclaimed, "Oh my god, fairy chess pieces are any pieces added that aren't in orthodox chess!"

"I just said that! I get it. Well, most of it, I'll figure the rest out," Alison wailed, she really only remembered half of the rules, but she figured with that, plus the original chess rules, she could figure out anything that she didn't know from watching Sheldon and Leonard. She could do it herself; it couldn't be that hard…

The match played out Alison was floundering, but she was holding on. Considering this was the first time she had played chess against an actual person, not to mention that this was some crazy made up version with a million rules she hadn't ever heard before today, she was doing awesome. But she was thankful that they didn't make three way chess clocks. It took her an inordinate amount of time to place a move. The most hysterical part being that she wasn't under attack of any kind, she didn't care though, she saw that she had the opportunity to set an unbreakable wall. She wouldn't waste that. She knew it wouldn't be long before one of them had been eliminated. Leonard and Sheldon were really good, she was barely holding on. As far as winning that would be impossible, she hadn't captured anything, but it seemed like Sheldon and Leonard were mostly fighting each other, leaving her to observe and prepare.

And that she did. To watch her would be something like watching a bug fight to dodge the blades of a blender, safe, yet unable to accept the safety. At one point she stood up on the couch and put both hands on her eyes. She was thinking too hard, she was determined to have a flawless, impenetrable barrier ready before the attention turned to taking her down. She knew the rules, she knew some strategies, but she could hardly see a way to apply them here. Over thinking everything aside, it was working.

Leonard lost, and by the time they had finished Alison had set up a lovely pawn barrier. This was crazy; with Sheldon's army weakened she could actually stand a chance.

{Sheldon}

Alison had a brain; he had ignored her because he was sure she would flounder. He had compromised his army and now he would have to break through defenses that she had 50 turns to set up. He had won in that he had been the first to checkmate, if he was playing someone who was actually good that would be enough. He should have paid attention to her. She had instinct, he hated to admit it, but he couldn't see a way for him to beat her. He made a move to tuck his king further into the back corner of his territory. He had gained respect for her. She was nearly as smart as him. It had been a slight oversight to leave her untouched and unthreatened for so long, but that was Leonard's error. She hardly knew how to play chess, even at this disadvantaged state he had to beat her.

Amy had never wanted to play this game, and yet Alison was up for anything, she had jumped fearlessly in, and a few turns later it was clear she would win. He had broken a big enough hole in the pawn barrier that he could slip something through. But what, she had captured his remaining gorilla in the process. He was down to a queen, serpent, beekeeper, pope, and both bishops. Plus Prince Joey, but that hardly counted…

{Alison}

'_Does a knight in shining golf cart count as something that can deliver checkmate? I haven't touched it so it has to be done. Or maybe it would be wiser to send a bishop...' _She knew the odds were in her favor, and all she had to do was get something into that back into that corner. Sheldon was brilliant. He had taken down Leonard and was now making quick work of her pawns. She had been forced to move the rest of the barrier that he didn't capture out of the way. She had only 4 pawns left. He had taken a rook and a night while she tried to kill his serpent. If this was their usual Sunday morning activity this was awesome.

She didn't see why she had avoided this so strongly, except she did know why. It hurt to think about it, but she needed to tell someone. Not Penny, Penny wouldn't get it. She would have to find a time to talk to Sheldon. He would know exactly what to say. He was a solid factual person, he would know all of the right words to say to someone trying to get out of an emotionally caked past.

{Sheldon}

Alison wasn't paying attention, he could tell by how fast he was gaining place, she wasn't trying anymore. He could save the match. She was too distracted by something, he didn't care what it was, but it was amazing, it gave him time to infiltrate her security without her noticing. It was brilliant, it was sneaky, but it worked, he had slipped past. He for a moment thought to ask what was concerning her, but his competitive spirit got the best of him. She wasn't thinking properly, that was her problem.

He figured it best to give her a bit of warning, "Alison, you are in check."

She looked startled; he had shaken her out of her thoughts. She shook her head quickly and looked at the board. It was good, but he would have to chase her around for a while. Even when she wasn't thinking she still had more functioning logic skills than his mother ever employed. It was his rook against her king, her bishop, and her rook. He chased her king around the board for 6 minutes, he was aware that she wasn't letting herself be cornered, he knew that they had hit two repetitions of the three she would need to call draw, but if she didn't know he would win. It hit. She said nothing. He smiled, but then she asked, "Wait was that the third… so clearly I'm not going to do anything differently, and neither are you…"

Sheldon wanted to win this, but clearly she had strategic skills. She had natural abilities, and she had played. That was something Amy NEVER did. She was good, and maybe she wasn't totally forgetful.

"It is a pleasure to tie you Sheldon" Alison said dipping her head to him.

"And you as well," He sighed.

"Would you like to come to my apartment? I have Tea and something that might be used in the place of scones…" She invited with a warm smile.

At least she was honest. Mystery tea and biscuits, they were good, she threw them in the microwave, and he had to admit the mystery tea was decent. There wasn't much to complain about. Usually chess is much shorter, matches with Leonard ended quickly. He had misses the time for his breakfast, today was off schedule, so he might as well enjoy the fruits of his draw.

{Alison}

After a wonderful game of chess, which she was entirely unprepared for, a breakfast with her neighbor and an incident involving her sink plug nearly falling down the drain she was ready for a Sunday afternoon nap. She would need it. Tomorrow she had to face her team. Maybe the excitement that came from observing the virus would convince them to smile. Once, or even go insane and put on a color that isn't grey!

* * *

Hopefully this was good, this might not seem like much right now, but it's just a little stepping stone on the way to the point where things actually start happening. Next chapter there will be a car scene!


	8. Chapter 8

Sorry about the delay, Life happened. I hope you like this chapter, kind of uneventful, but it sets the ground work for A LOT. (The asterisk is a foot note)

* * *

{Sheldon}

Alison knocked on the door, for some reason she only knocked three times. It was incomplete, she just keeps going with life, but she never finished knocking. He couldn't stand to think that she hadn't finished. He had to do it for her every time.

"Alison if you are going to knock like that you have to finish it," He scolded as he opened the door.

"So I should knock differently?" She asked.

"No, just finish the knock when you start it!" He exclaimed walking out the door.

Alison had a travel coffee cup that Sheldon knew to be full of tea, Alison's mystery tea with sugar. If he hadn't been so upset the first time she had made it he couldn't picture him not disliking it. It was different, but it was better than tolerable. Almost enjoyable. It had been the attitude of the moment, yes that was it, nothing could have made his life worse then, so he didn't even think about the tea.

Now it made him think about Alison. He didn't quite know why but he liked that, she deserved a place in his mind, with physics, comic books, star trek, and everyone else in his life. She was clearly capable of learning the routine; she was capable of remembering things, she was analytical, she was scientific. She wasn't so bad, as far as strangers go she was teachable. Maybe even worth teaching.

As they entered the car she asked, "So what task do you choose to thrust upon me this morning?" in reference to the car games he always initiated in the mornings.

"If you are familiar with the periodic table we could play a game where I name an element and you have to name another that starts with the same letter that the last one ended with, without repeating any elements," He proposed.

"Ummm, that couldn't possibly work… There are only 9 letters that elements end with, but there are elements that start with every letter bu and W."* She was good. Penny hadn't caught that, not that he had expected her to, but he didn't think Alison would get it either. He couldn't help but be a little bit impressed.

{Alison}

"You are the first person who has ever caught that…"Sheldon said, he was almost smiling.

"Really?" She asked in disbelief. She was being validated by Sheldon, the way everyone acted that was rare. She was sure that this counted as being friends. She had been driving him to work, they played chess yesterday, he had come to her for advice, and she planned to confide in him. She hadn't ever been fully aware of the rules governing the phases of relational existence. She could assume he didn't either, that could make things really awkward, or so perfect it didn't seem real. She would shoot for perfect. That meant that she had to turn off all of her observations of human social structures and write a whole new set of rules. Maybe it was time. She could handle something permanent now, she was out of college. She knows what it's like now.

They hardly spoke more than a few words the rest of the way to work. She was thinking about her team, and well, all she knew was that he was thinking. When she got upstairs to the lab she was the first one there, as usual. She could hardly believe that they had been hired, they didn't love their job like she did, they hadn't dreamed of this since the 6th grade, there were only three doctors on the team. The others were just here because they knew the minimum amount of information for a position on a team. They might as well just be paid interns.

That was about how effective they are. "Here goes everything," she whispered as Lori, her only teammate who responded to anything stepped into the room. She wasn't nearly as late as the others. They hardly bothered to show up. Maybe they really were just interns, no, interns had a reason to care they were being graded.

"So virus observation, Lori and I will get the samples out of the test tubes, and onto a microscope slide. I need Martha to turn on the lab equipment. Jake, if you think you can handle it you can take the first look into the microscope," She started to delegate jobs. Jake sneezed 7 times in a row. "Jake, I need you to step outside. You may contaminate our specimens. There's a conference room down the hall, you can go sit there," She had no fear of germs, they just were, but not today, she was working with genetically modified Adenovirus, she couldn't let it spread to the public. Sure it had been altered to have a shorter lifespan; the virus would die out on its own, even given the perfect environment for reproduction, each infectious agent would die before it got very far. It wasn't harmless, and still extremely contagious, but symptoms would be shorter.

After she spread the contents of the test tube onto a fresh microscope slide she immediately used hand sanitizer. This was dangerous, her oblivious teammates wouldn't think about it that way but she knew how vitally important it was that Caltech not be responsible for an end of summer epidemic. '_That would be GREAT publicity, and they totally wouldn't fire us, we are totally not disposable.' _She thought sarcastically. Tossing the hand sanitizer bottle into her purse she looked through the lenses of the microscope at dozens of miniscule sub-living things.

{Stewart}

He sat behind the desk at the comic book store thinking about Amy. They had hung out all weekend. It had been awesome, but this Monday was hitting him hard. He had an amazing weekend, but it was over, and he would have to sit through a whole dismal week before he could do it again. It had been more exciting that the entire time he was in high school. They had kissed, multiple times, watched three different movies, all of which Amy said she loved. They weren't officially boyfriend/girlfriend, but it wouldn't be long.

Amy was amazing. Her soft, straight brown hair, her intelligent eyes, her smile, she was a special kind of pretty. She knew things he could never hope to know, he would never be a doctor, but that didn't matter to her. He could follow her conversations and remember enough of what she said to be worth talking to, and he'd learn to live knowing he would never be as smart as her. It wouldn't be hard, all but one of his best friends were doctors. As long as she didn't care than it would all be fine. He watched the seconds tick away. Soon she would be going to lunch he imagined her eating lunch, probably including chicken, and a bottled beverage of some sort. It reminded him of their boardwalk picnic.

He was too deep in thought to notice the customer that walked in. "Amy?" he mumbled to the stranger, who happened to be male.

{Alison}

Lunch was uneventful; she was late and missed Sheldon, though thankful that she hadn't crashed into him again. She had wanted to see him, but it would have to wait for the car ride home. The rest of her day was a pain in the rear. They got next to nowhere. She managed to get a video from through the microscope. She would have them look at it later. She wanted to have something worth presenting at the convention. She wanted to stand up in front of all of the interested scientists of America and announce her capability, she wanted something good to come out of such a terrible team, at least she could get to tell America about the project, to prove her worth.

She would never feel like she was good enough. Even if she made a huge discovery that would change the field of genetics forever it wouldn't be a life fulfilling accomplishment, she was so insecure. She was afraid of making a mistake, the only thing that kept her from letting that fear stop her from doing anything was the part that reminded her that she had to be worth something. She had a doctorate, most people she had ever known would say that she had made it, her dreams were achieved and she had no reason to worry so much about failing. She didn't feel that way; no matter what she did she couldn't believe she would ever be more than one mistake away from failing.

On the other hand she was almost fearless; sometimes for some things she could turn a blind eye on danger and do something crazy. She had to learn to live there. Sheldon was the opposite kind of fearless; he didn't care what people thought about him. She cared too much. He would voice his opinion no matter what the risk. She walked to his office door.

(Three knocks) "Sheldon?"

-Nine second pause-

"Oh yeah!" (Three knocks) "Sheldon,"

(Three knocks) "Sheldon"

He opened the door with that half smile that she had come to like. That smile meant that she did something right.

"Ready to go?" She asked as she fished around in her purse for her car keys. She found them and picked up the little rubber sea urchin attached to the key ring by a series of macramé knots that she though resembled the double helix twist of DNA strands. As many times as she told her close friends that no one ever saw it. High School, the North High Sea Urchin extreme cheer team, walking down the stairs that was all she could think of.

"Purple, Gold, and White, Urchins let's Fight!" The cheer replayed in her mind. The short skirt and crop top. The only school team with such a uniform. These were the girls who did halftime, pep rallies, and practiced at a non-school gym. The girls who did the "Crazy Flips" all had more than a back handspring. The team that forced her to walk the line between the two halves of herself.

{Leonard}

Crap. It was takeout night. He wouldn't be getting home until about an hour after Sheldon and Alison. He needed to call her and get her to pick up the usual order.

"Alison, Yes, Hi, I need you to stop and pick up the Thai food Take Out. It's Siam Palace, nothing with peanuts or peanut oil for Howard, wait, Sheldon knows this… Forks, they are acceptable for eating Thai food, but they have to have four tines. Otherwise it's a trident." He frantically instructed her over the phone. He knew she would do fine. Alison had an impeccable memory. "Raj is having car problems. He is going to be late, but not as late as I am. Thank You so much!" He finished and made a mental note to pay Alison back for the food.

He set the phone down and got back to adjusting the laser settings.

{Alison}

"Hey, that was Leonard; he wants me to take you to get the Thai food from Siam Palace. Where is that?" She explained the phone call. He seemed a bit irritated at her for not knowing, but he still explained. They weren't complicated directions; it was almost on the way home.

She and Sheldon were the first ones there. She found that slightly odd considering the food stop.

"So now what?" She asked standing in the hallway.

"Well in Leonard's absence someone needs to help set up." He explained as if it should have been obvious.

"Okay, but I DVRed an episode of Cheer Perfection over a month ago, I kind of planned to watch that tonight, so I can't stay for too long." She replied, accepting his blunt request for her assistance, as she followed him inside. She set all of the food on the coffee table and gathered forks, counting the tines. She paused, as she realized that she really never thought about this before.

"What's wrong?" Sheldon asked impatiently.

"I've never thought about fork tines. Leonard says you don't like 3 tined forks…" She explained, realizing that she had made an idiot of herself. '_What kind of idiot stares at forks?' _She scolded herself silently.

"A three tined fork is a trident, tridents are meant for ruling the ocean," He justified Leonard's statement, Alison took his to mean that he was offended, or creeped out. She assumed she had messed everything up, she had to fix it, she had to correct her words.

"Yeah, that makes complete sense. I just haven't ever thought about it… You are totally right…" She forced herself to stop talking. Biting the inside of her lip she suddenly remembered that she had borrowed Sheldon's hand sanitizer that morning.

"Hey, I forgot to give this back to you." She said as she handed the hand sanitizer to Sheldon, setting the fork on top of his food container. As she walked back into the kitchen she zipped up her backpack, getting mica dust all over her hand. She blows the shimmery white eye shadow powder up, it blows noticeably into the air. Not wanting to feed the others eye shadow she washes her hands before she set three forks out onto the three remaining containers.

"Have a nice dinner!" She exclaimed as she walked out of the apartment. She passed Howard in the hallway. She simply waved, though she wasn't sure he noticed. She would finally have a solo night. Just herself and the electronics that composed the world around her. It had been too long; she had spent her weekend in front of her GPS trying to find a suitable grocery store, which was a nightmare. Apparently no one has Swedish breakfast tea. She only had two tea bags left that she had brought with her. Not to mention that her region's convenience store would be irreplaceable. It's a good thing she had been driving Sheldon to work or she would have lost it by now.

California was certainly different.

{Later}

Alison snapped up, she had nearly cleared the DVR list of all of the old episodes of Cheer Perfection, slamming the pause button, she leapt for the door. She had missed something really important. She stood at her neighbor's door until her watch read 9:02. Whispering she softly knocked:

(Three knocks) "Leonard?"

(Three Knocks) "Leonard,"

(Three Knocks) "Leonard"

He answered the door, eyes closed saying, "Sheldon, I thought you were in bed, and why are you whispering?" Then he saw her, "Alison. I really thought you were Sheldon. You were whispering, I couldn't get the tone of your voice, plus, um…" he tried to explain.

"It's fine, and Sheldon doesn't like it when I only knock three times and say a name once," She answered the unasked question, "I can explain, but not in here. Come to the lobby."

* * *

*Yes that is correct I counted. Again I promise Raj doesn't stay in the background forever.

The plot bunnies are tearing my limbs off. No quantity of pastel colored candy will tempt them to put me down for an hour so I can type.

Swedish Breakfast tea is not a real thing.

Happy Easter to all and to all a good night!


	9. Chapter 9

Try not to just skip to the part where you get to find out what she did. Sorry about the cliffhanger, but it was too perfect to resist.

* * *

{Leonard}

He was startled as he tromped down the stairs after Alison. He couldn't come up with any reason for this, not why she would take him down to the lobby, she clearly needed to say something out of Sheldon's earshot, but what. He could nearly rule out the possibility that it had to do with him. Alison hardly knew him. She had been driving Sheldon to and from work, maybe he is a little too crazy. He thought they got along in some strange way, but maybe not.

They had reached the lobby, only standing still for half a second before he blurted out, "Is this about the car rides? It's only 4 more days, and then I'll take over."

"No, um, it's not that at all, let me explain. Um… well you see, where do I begin with this?" Alison struggled nervously to describe the situation.

"Well it may sound cheesy, but you could try the beginning," he suggested trying to lighten the mood.

"It all started when I was accepted for the science program in my school district when I was in the 8th grade. Or maybe it was the first grade when I realized how much I loved science…" She started, but was cut off by Leonard.

"Skip ahead a little."

"Okay so I was hired to the Caltech biochemistry department. I was thrilled, I was living my life dream, I walk into the building of my new home and there's someone digging through my stuff. I somehow manage to play it cool, and I'm glad I did. He turned out to be my neighbor, we work at the same place, and share a morning and evening commute. My research team is a depressed mess, but I know I'll be on my way to bigger and better things soon." It looked like she was talking trying to calm herself down. She was pacing the lobby.

She whipped around to face him, visibly biting her lip, eyebrows furrowed nervously. She took a deep breath. Closed her eyes. "I may have accidentally infected Sheldon with a genetically modified virus," She said it so fast he was shocked he understood it, but he couldn't miss it either. He assumed he looked shocked stunned and terrified because in the next breath she screamed,

"It was an accident I swear!" After another breath she continued, "Okay, now that I've said it, will you let me explain without interruption?" Without waiting for a response she continued, "My team is composed of door knobs. Today we had to observe the virus. Lisa, the least objectionable of all of my teammates, was holding the microscope slide, and she still got the solution containing infectious viruses on my hand. I used Hand Sanitizer that I borrowed from him that morning immediately. I threw it back in my backpack. Now the rest of my day is irrelevant to this explanation, after we got to the building and up the stairs, he wanted me to set up the food, I stood thinking about forks, and somehow I remembered to give him back the Hand sanitizer. I handed it to him and set the fork on top of his food."

"Wait- you touched the forks we ate off of? That means-"

"Ahh, yes you, Howard, and Raj have been spared by the mica eye shadow I got on my hands when I zipped my backpack. I washed it off of my hands before I gave you guys forks. It's not dangerous; in fact, it's less harmful than the wild form of adenovirus 40. It cannot be exposed to the public. No Matter what." She stopped talking.

After several moments of thinking she had come up with a plan. "I have a friend who runs a hotel a few hours away. I'll stay behind and take care of him, it's my fault. Before you say it, I know."

"Know what, that Sheldon is the worst patient in the world?" He scoffed.

{Alison}

"It's what you would call women's intuition, it's the only logical answer," she spoke, forcing herself not to hesitate. She thought of 5 different words she could have used. She Sheldon had an obsessive attachment to it. She had to know why. She couldn't accept it as just a fact. No a concept that meant so much couldn't be discarded. She had to know.

"I'll have an estimate time frame ready for you guys in the morning, get ready to call everyone for an emergency vacation. Anyone who he would trust above me has to be pulled out. You, Penny, Howard, Raj, if Howard goes, than so will Bernadette," She walked halfway up to the first landing, before she turned back down and added, "Amy" She was sure her meaning was clear. No matter how mad at her he thought he was he might still pick her. And Amy wouldn't know what she was up against. "Take Stewart too, and don't worry I'll handle the cover up to get you away safely, and figure out how to tell him the truth."

This was crazy. The best estimate she could manage would be 49 hours from the time of exposure to the time of infection. She couldn't quite determine the time that he would start to shed the virus, and when it would be traceable. More importantly when he would be contagious.

She needed tea. It didn't matter that it was 2 in the morning; she had to find the tea. Sheldon had specifically requested Swedish Breakfast tea every morning since he had first tried it. But it Alison couldn't find it. Alison was about to go crazy. There was only one way to know, it would require precision, a level of accuracy that she couldn't imagine her team being able to reach. She knew exactly what to do. She just had to find tea! She scoured the internet looking for stores in Pasadena that sold it. It didn't open until 6 am. "Crazy tea loving psychos…." She muttered wondering who would go to work at 6 in the morning. She wouldn't sleep tonight.

She needed the tea so she could give Sheldon tea in the usual travel thermos and collect it at about lunch. This would seem normal, and she could test the rim of the cup for the virus.

"Hey, Mandy! How's the hotel business? Umm, so yeah. You know how I was studying to become a geneticist? Well, that happened and so I need to ask you for a little favor. I know you are probably insanely tightly booked for the science convention, but " She started nervously, "I've kind of hit a little situation, long story short I need to get some friends out of town up until the convention. It's only a minor emergency, nothing I can't handle, and I swear I'll explain later, but I just need to know if you have 4 adjacent rooms. No, not adjoining. Just next to each other. Hmm, well if they are on the same floor that should be close enough,"

"Half price for my old roommate," Mandy offered, "Stat Class Buddy?"

"That was only for two years, and then you moved on. I-" Alison tried to decline, she hated feeling like a charity project. She couldn't just accept help. Maybe she was a little bit too independent. Mandy insisted. Alison finally accepted, "Alright, but I'm in California now, I'm going to drive out there in a while and treat you to lunch." Mandy accepted, with words she would never forget. She couldn't even fathom them as it was.

The last time she had decided not to sleep she was in Virginia, in college. Technically she was in a kind of college. She worked at a university. If someone had told her in the 4th grade, when she decided she wouldn't become a veterinarian because she would have to go to extra college, she would have laughed in their face. And now she would spend her whole life in a school.

Life, it had really 'thrown her a curveball' as her dad would say. On the other hand the difference between a back to school outbreak of viral gastroenteritis was her. That was important, empowering. Of course the whole thing was her fault, but she had a chance to stop it. Science Fiction, what little she had let herself read back in high school, it all came down to one person, one moment. It was them against all odds, one huge act of heroism to save the world, or even the universe. Sure this was much smaller, and there was a much better chance that she would succeed.

They always had the courage to make the perfect move. They made mistakes, but never failed in the end, but this was the real world. She was no courageous, stunning heroine with amazing powers; she was a meek, unconfident, geneticist. And if she got into trouble she wouldn't even have the sense to get help. She had to do everything on her own.

Maybe not, maybe she could convince someone to help her. She had to keep the others safe. She knew she did this at the cost of definite infection. If she was doing something so drastic she sure as hell wasn't going to risk that her effort be wasted. Sheldon was seriously mysophobic, she knew. He hadn't said so, but the quantity of hand sanitizers he kept, she knew the way someone watched a sneeze go across a room. She'd tried it before, she didn't really care, but she was observant enough. The way he turned his whole body around when Leonard sneezed, making carful note of everything he touched after.

Alison could easily survive if she was a germaphobe. She did have a habit of tracing potential infectious agents. The dividing line was her habit stemmed purely from boredom, there was nothing more interesting to do. The results of her observations made no effect on her behavior. She knew Sheldon wasn't like that. That was the key; if she could convince him that someone else in the group had a cold he wouldn't touch anything. He would save the group without knowing.

Who did Sheldon have the least empathy for? If there is any chance that he would make an attempt to care for the person, they could be infected. It couldn't be her; she knew she couldn't get him to let her stay if he believed it. Not Amy, if he still had any feelings for her, he might try to help. Penny, no, she was an actress, but she had taken care of him in the past, that could destroy the cautious apathy she needed to get everyone in and out of the apartment uncontaminated. If they were infected it would spread, Sheldon and herself, that was controllable, that could fade out without hitting the public.

Howard. That was it, if she could convince him to fake a cold on Wednesday, Sheldon wouldn't try to assist him, only concerned about his own health. Without realizing the time, Mandy was always a night owl, she knew she'd take nights at the desk, getting her at 2:30 in the morning, a no-brainer. She didn't reconsider this in calling Howard.

"Who are you and what could you possibly need at this hour?" Bernadette yelled when she picked up the phone.

"Alison Carter, I need to talk to Howard," She faltered realizing the inconvenience. They probably hated her for this. She felt like such an idiot!

{Howard}

Barely awake all he knew was that Alison had called.

"You're on Speaker Phone," Bernadette shouted angrily into the phone.

"Umm, well I've got a Sheldon problem," the voice on the phone was nervous, but that someone would have a problem with Sheldon that was no surprise.

She explained something about Sheldon being exposed to genetically modified virus, and that she had booked them a trip to San Diego. Before requesting, "On Wednesday I need you to fake a cold. Tell the others why, I'll call Leonard, but I think it would be best if you explained that you were faking a cold,"

He agreed, after hanging up he told Bernadette, "Well that was bizarre"

He was too exhausted to care; Bernadette seemed to accept the sudden trip that was all that mattered. That and getting back to sleep. Alison was a very interesting person, three in the morning was time for odd frantic phone calls and explanations he wouldn't remember in the morning. She like Sheldon built up impenetrable cover ups for lies.

If it hadn't been the middle of the night he would have asked the obvious question, she hadn't explained to him how he seeming sick would spare the group and the public from the virus. She must think it's obvious. Just like Sheldon. At least she seemed to have limits; she had been too worried about something to realize the time.

* * *

Yep, for now you only get to hear Alison's side of the conversation. You'll get to hear Mandy's last statement in a few chapters.


	10. The Stashed Burrito Corallary

{Alison}

As she pulled up in to the apartment, she was fuming. Bolting up the stairs she only had enough time to make the tea. In a desperate attempt not to sleep in and miss, well the whole day she had drunken the last two bags that she had from before the move, she had no choice but to run out and get the tea. Alison was there the minute the shop opened, but that was where her luck ended.

She didn't even have to knock when she got to the door, she was right on time.

"Dr. Cooper I hope you are happy, I had to drive all the way to Gardena at 5:30 this morning, and I just got back, it was only a 40 minute drive, but everyone in California decided that today was the perfect day to crash their cars into each other at 6:30 am to cause an hour long delay for someone who just wants to get home and make tea for her neighbor." She screamed into the doorway, at the fastest imaginable speed. "I did find a tolerable coffee house; I've had like nine cups of dark roast coffee. I haven't slept since this time yesterday; this is going to be one of those dark roast or die days. That hasn't happened in a long time…" She paused. "Swedish Breakfast Tea- Enjoy," She extended the travel cup to him and bolted into her apartment.

Grabbing her make up box she started down the stairs.

"Alison I think the caffeine may be effecting your emotional stability," He replied.

"I think you might be right," She gasped shutting up. She remembered that he was infected now, that the tea was for testing, and that she was the dividing element between minor and major disaster.

{Sheldon}

Usually he wouldn't think twice about someone fetching tea for him, even at an 80 minute transit, turned into a 2 hour fiasco. She had always been so willing, not thinking twice about doing favors; this tipped her over the edge. He was sure it was just the coffee exacerbating the stress of disastrous traffic. Alison was usually quite sensible, more than sensible. She had seen him in a more emotional state that this.

She seemed to dread getting back into the car. They finished the walk down the stairs, and she hesitated grimacing as she opened the door.

"We're taking Euclid," She stated flatly.

"But there are speed bumps on Euclid! One time Howard drove me down Euclid Avenue on a moped! It was horrifying!" He wailed in protest.

"Well this isn't a moped, and we are taking Euclid. I have had a very long day, considering my 'day' started this time YESTERDAY," She muttered, he could tell she wasn't mad, she was just venting energy, and she was miffed, but that was about it.

"What are you angry about?" He inquired.

{Alison}

He had noticed her hostile mood.

"Oh, it's really nothing. I've had a rough day and I couldn't sleep last night, too busy tracing this tea near Pasadena. By the way, how is it?" She asked making an effort to smile, "I'm also mad at myself for missing something blatantly obvious at work on Monday. Okay so it's mostly that." She tried to be honest. In a way she was, she had missed something, she hadn't slept, and she had to find the tea. That was more technically honest than she had been in a while. She hadn't had a reason for that in collage.

Sheldon made this feel like high school, only better. It was the same way she told her mother things that were true, but didn't say everything. With her mother it didn't hurt. She wasn't lying; she was just clever enough to have another layer of responses besides the complete ones. She hated doing that to Sheldon. She knew he was smarter, she could debate the increment, but she knew she was smarter than her mother. She wanted to tell him everything, to be totally honest, she didn't deserve to keep secrets from Sheldon, but she had to. In college the people didn't matter, there was Mandy, but that was like a super best friend. It hurt when she moved to California.

Her next roommate took night classes and worked mornings, she had day classes and an evening job. They saw each other about 15 times in two years of living together. She attended some parties, but after Mandy left she quit cheer. That was when she tanked. She had always been a scientist; she was born one and would die one, but she cared about social protocol, and sure that gave her some great memories, but the only movie close to science fiction she let herself watch was spider-man. No sane geneticist could resist that, a touch of wonderfully unreachable sci-fi, a heart melting story, and based on cross-species genetics.

Just the thought stole her lungs again, the muscles tightening; she bit the inside of her lip. This was both the result and the cause of her avoidance. It locked her in an unbreakable paradox. This was squee, as she had learned, the 'so happy I forgot to breathe'.

"We are taking Euclid because I need to stop at the pharmacy. Howard asked me to bring him some cough drops," She explained beaming. Maybe she had had too much coffee. Usually the act of explaining her odd behavior was frantic, nervous and endless. She hoped he wouldn't catch on as she added, "Apparently he's a little sick. I'm sure it's nothing ser-"

"Sick! With what? When did he call you?" Sheldon screamed.

"He just has a cold, and he called last night. I guess he figured I'd be the only one up at eleven. In more important news, I booked us all a trip to San Diego for the convention! We leave after Caltech closes on Wednesday, and stay until afterwards. I must ask that there be no hotel bashing, my old roommate owns the hotel. What do you guys do in hotel rooms?"

"Raj will probably be watching a romantic drama movie, Bernadette and Howard will probably argue, I can't be sure what Amy and Stewart will do, but it will probably involve a movie, Leonard and Penny will either ignore each other, or engage in coitus." He explained. She tried not to pull back at hearing the end of that. She would have to get to the lack of euphemisms he used. She had adapted to the use of such pointless cover ups as a child, it couldn't be easy for her to learn to drop them again.

"Well you left two people out of that, me and you. Is everyone else but Raj paired off? What do you do?" She asked curiously.

{Sheldon}

"Well we can be sure that no matter how carefully plans are made to set up a room arrangement it won't work out. People will move around and I will end up with Leonard and Penny. I don't know about you," He retold the tale of the last hotel trip they took.

"What if, for the sake of logistics we consider ourselves a pair? Then you won't need noise blocking headphones," she offered.

"Alison, I accept on the condition that it is absolutely clear that we are nothing more than friends sharing a room," he agreed.

"Travel Partners, nothing more," She nodded.

Alison always knew how to fix situations, "I presume that you don't mind watching Star Trek in the hotel," He stated, assuming that someone of her intellect would have seen all of the movies and episodes multiple times. It had to be true. She did a lot of things Amy never did, but also she didn't do the things that Amy did that bugged him. She never tried to hold his hand. She understood his desire to keep schedule. She did argue a bit more, but she sometimes did have a point. More than tolerable, she was a worthy companion.

"Umm, that sounds amazing, but you'd have to know that I've never seen any part of Star Trek, I've ALWAYS wanted to, but I haven't. I just never did. It's kind of hard to explain, but I promise I'll explain it later. I'd love to watch it though!" She looked nervous, her usual nervousness. The answer did come as a shock, but that meant he would get to teach her everything. This was going to be a fantastic trip.

Alison had made the decision to get the berry ice cough drops over the menthol ones, it was an odd choice he thought, but it would be Alison who had to take the force of the decision. He was busy thinking about a weekend teaching Alison everything there is to know about his favorite series. It wasn't even just a regular weekend. He'd have all day Thursday and Friday plus the weekend. If he could convince her she would make an excellent addition to the group for conventions. Oh what a shame they were attending Caltech's convention rather than Comicon, or something that would expand her knowledge of the series.

{Alison}

She leaped out of the car as soon as she reached the building.

"I have to go talk to President Siebert, See you later!" She yelled back as she fled. Wearing heels and running on little sleep, she must have been an interesting sight. Sheldon had finished the tea on the car ride; she held the cup and ran to the office of the University's President.

"I know I'm the rookie, but I need a morning of independent research I accidentally infected one of my friends with the virus and I need to test the rim of this cup. But don't worry, it's someone in the university, no public outbreak, and I've got it under total control," she blurted it all out as soon as he had opened the door. Then she squinched back, preparing to be scolded.

"Alright, I trust your reasoning Dr. Carter, I must ask though, Who?" He asked.

"Dr. Sheldon Cooper, He's my neighbor…" She explained.

"Oh dear god, you are so dead!" He yelled in shock at her.

"He'll be totally fine by the convention!" She wailed in her defense.

"No, not that, you got Dr. Cooper sick. Does he know?" He inquired; she shook her head in reply. "Well go, do your research!" He directed her.

That was a bit distressing, especially the fact that President Siebert had broken the professional atmosphere of her request. Everyone was acting strange.

{Howard}

Alison had tossed him the cough drops earlier that day. They stained his tongue an undeniable shade of purple. "Hi Guys, Raj is meeting Lucy for lunch, Alison is going to join us." He whispered. Sheldon freaked out at every cough, sneeze or sniffle. It was right where Alison needed him, not likely to get any of us sick. He couldn't believe Alison would do this, sure it was her fault, but it was an accident. She was the newest group member; usually Sheldon care went to Leonard, or Penny, and recently Amy, before they broke up. She didn't know how bad Sheldon was. She couldn't possibly fathom how much of a pain he could be.

He was torn. He could explain it all to her, or he could take the escape route she was offering them. She wouldn't accept it if he told her that Sheldon was crazy, he had to let he learn it for herself. He wasn't proud of his choice to leave her out to dry, but maybe it was the only way. Plus, they were a pretty cute couple. If she survived this upcoming week and didn't marry him, Sheldon would never marry. She was resilient, tolerant, she might even be pretty enough to catch Sheldon's attention. She stood a chance; he couldn't be the only one who thought they would be good together.

She wasn't bulletproof. She had to have a breaking point. As she sat down he unwrapped another cough drop.

Alison texted him under the table,_ "I have a burrito in my purse. I will put it in your office after lunch."_

Howard tried not to laugh, he knew girls threw crazy stuff in their purses, but that had to be the craziest one he ever heard about. Even before he met Bernie when he had seen the contents of several women's purses, the oddest thing was continually bizarre key chains. He hid the laugh in another cough.

"I couldn't eat…" He pretended to struggle on the three words as hid hit send, a text saying _"THX"_

He had told Leonard and Raj all about the trip and the plan. Raj hadn't wanted to hear the details; he couldn't stand to hear the graphic information about a sick Sheldon. He had taken care of him once and that was bad enough. Leonard told him more details than he had gotten out of Alison on the phone.

He was excited for a chance of pace.

* * *

Thank you to all who continue to read and review, I appreciate reading every one. I hope you all enjoy reading the story! I do plan on correcting the problems with the early chapters and adding pretty titles to all of the chapters. I hope to be able to do this without a delay in new chapters, but it will take a long time.

Okay, enough of Alison's thoughts, the next one Sheldon gets the most POV time.

By the way I really thought I posted this like 4 days ago. Thank you so much for your patience, and I promise there will be another one tomorrow! Happy 10th chapter!


	11. The Wal-Mart Clue Disruption

{Alison}

She sat staring into the microscope. She wanted so badly to be wrong, she wanted to have the perfect vacation, but it wouldn't happen. It was too perfect. Just as she was about to assume herself wrong, she spotted it, one of the little viruses, other than the blue tint the virus had, it was easy to spot, Sheldon's mouth was meticulously thought, confirming beyond any imaginable doubt that she had way too much coffee. She scolded herself for letting her mind drift to such an odd topic.

She was right. 9 years ago she would have been thrilled to be officially confirmed to have a correct hypothesis, but not now. She had hoped to be wrong; she wanted him to be unharmed. They had the groundwork for a perfect trip, but the plans left her wishing that she didn't know. Knowing that they wouldn't get the picturesque vacation, and that she would have to go on acting like everything was fine, it hurt, worse than when she fell off the high dive and landed on her back flat into the water. Mandy had distracted her then, and the free spirited girl in her fell hard. When would she learn that some things in life just cause unnecessary problems? Whip around to watch your best friend do a perfect back tuck off the low dive, crash onto your back and spend the next ten minutes hardly able to breathe. Mess up and get a close friend sick. She had to be perfect.

Alison has always had a terrible tendency of magnifying her errors. A tiny mistake of her own and she scolded herself ruthlessly, but if someone else did something a hundred times worse she forgives them instantly. She would often end up blaming herself for the whole thing.

{Sheldon}

Howard was sick. He coughed and sneezed more times than seemed humanly possible during lunch. Sheldon had washed his hands multiple times, but no matter what they what they wouldn't feel clean. At least he had been courteous enough to sneeze away from the table into a tissue to avoid contaminating the air, but he still couldn't imagine that someone like Howard being able to completely avoid spreading the virus onto the table. He couldn't think of any reason why Alison would visit the table on such a day.

Alison, she was smart, even given the fact that she gave up a lunch in the solitude of a disused conference room to spend time at a germ ridden table in Raj's place. Maybe he would join her in that conference room tomorrow. Risking one day at lunch with Howard would be enough. He was looking forward to a trip where he was basically guaranteed that he wouldn't be shuffled about from room to room. That was a pain.

Alison was the simple response to the social requirement that he have someone there. He'd choose the occasional weekend of solitude, but that wasn't an option very often. Alison was an excuse; Amy was never willing to just be the superfluous addition that appeased the social requirements for companionship. She wanted to have a physical relationship. Alison, something about her was just different.

Alison was brave, a kind of brave. He might be tempted to say that she was only fearless because she was too uninformed to know what to fear, they say ignorance is bliss after all. But Alison was smarter than that, he could tell that she was aware of the risk; she just chose to defy it. Science eloquently states the danger in simple tasks. Yet she acknowledged it, the moment of thoughtful hesitation before she picked up many items, she had learned to ignore the impossible to ignore. She was dangerous, she behaved a lot like Penny. She simply used the knowledge for practice. Sheldon shook his head as he caught himself thinking about her. He was a man of science; he needed to focus on his equations. However was it really illogical for him to question the motives of his back up? Usually when Leonard does research before or after work he has to beg Raj or Howard for a ride. Alison nearly volunteered. She fully supported his schedule and didn't mind the things that drove the others crazy.

Sheldon knew she was a bit stubborn; she would fight back in an argument, however she seemed not to argue over much. If she wasn't sure about something she wouldn't say it. That made her thoughts seem slow, except he could tell when she was thinking. She tilted her head ever so slightly, and tightened her lips. When they played chess she was inexperienced, but she could learn. She possessed the strategic capabilities. She could be brilliant if only she learned to trust her own judgment.

Typically the trip would be an unwelcome interruption. Something made him a bit optimistic about it. Maybe it was just the whole concept of having a new friend to explain everything there is to know about Star Trek to. As long as Alison liked it then there would be nothing to worry about. That would make the trip fun rather than a disruption. Plus if Alison liked it they would have a level of friendship that he never had with Amy. Amy could hardly tell the difference between Star Trek and Star Wars, let alone like either.

Alison had never seen Star Trek. Usually that would be a terrible thing, but it meant they would have something to do together for a long time. Although she did have a coffee problem, but so do most of his friends, though not to the same level. This trip was the deciding factor in the success of failure of his potential friendship with Alison. It wasn't abysmal if she didn't love it like he did, but there was something valuable to be gained if she found the show to be more than interesting.

{Raj}

Raj felt totally out of the loop getting ready for the sudden trip. Sure it had been worth it at the time, more time with Lucy in exchange for missing some group stuff. They were getting close. He felt comfortable with her. He didn't want to risk ruining the relationship by saying something he shouldn't while drunk. He'd had a close enough call with that already. They mostly texted, even face to face. She liked it because she didn't have to say things in front of everyone in the room, just to him. He liked it because he could communicate with her with no risk of messing things up.

All he knew was that Caltech had a new geneticist who happened to live next to Sheldon and Leonard. Sheldon had helped their new neighbor unpack on anything can happen Thursday. The geneticist had filled his place for vintage game night, and had been driving Sheldon to work, had joined the group at lunch that day, and most importantly had accidentally contaminated Sheldon's fork with a genetically modified virus, then got rooms for the other group members for the convention to reduce the risk of public outbreak.

This near-stranger was doing the unthinkable. Not simply putting up with Sheldon because he is Leonard's roommate and friend, but actually caring about him enough to stay behind and take care of a sick Sheldon. Typically the group flees to another building. He had taken care of Sheldon once when he had food poisoning, and that was a catastrophe. Sheldon is the worst patient! He never wanted to think about that day again, Raj couldn't imagine why someone would voluntarily take care of Sheldon, even if the whole thing was their fault.

Whoever it is must be as crazy as, no crazier than Sheldon. To actually like being around him… And not just the kind of resolved like that comes from having to put up with him for so long, but to actually enjoy being around him. This geneticist is no doubt a total psycho. He, Stewart and Howard had only hung out with Sheldon because of Leonard, Penny because she lives across the hall and has dated Leonard for quite a while, Bernadette because she's Penny's friend and Howard's wife. Amy on the other hand almost liked Sheldon for Sheldon. She got really sick of it after a while, which proves beyond doubt that Sheldon is a complete pain.

{Sheldon}

The ride home had been uneventful. Raj had apologized for missing so much time with the group, and he would come to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, except when he was finally able to come to something it was cancelled for packing time. Penny had gotten her shift moved so that she could bring the usual order to the apartment. Alison, upon further questioning, admitted to have called Penny, and later her boss on Monday night to get this arranged.

"One of the only times I call strangers and instead of 'Hello' I start the call with, 'Dr. Alison Carter' but if they listen that's all that matters. I suppose if it's important enough for someone to start a call like that they might as well try," Alison rambled on, her tone indicated that she had put effort into the arrangement, "Plus it was like 4 in the morning. That probably added to the sense of urgency"

Alison went to her apartment, just as her was nearly done packing all of his socks and pajamas Raj called.

"Sheldon, I don't have your neighbor's number, but could you please ask if Lucy could come. I'll really miss her if I had to spend a whole week without her. She would enjoy the convention," He requested.

"I'll go ask," He set the phone down and went to Alison's apartment door.

(Three Knocks) "Alison?"

(Three Knocks) "Alison,"

(Three Knocks) "Alison."

She opened the door and he asked, "Can Raj bring Lucy?"

"Umm, Is Lucy a cat, a dog, or the girlfriend?" She asked with a curious expression.

"Girlfriend," He replied.

_"Yeah, sure, they will have to share a room," Alison accepted, "And we'll have to drive there in a_ separate car.

"Really, well can we at least be lead car?" Sheldon begged.

"Sure, why not?" She sighed, "I have to go out for a bit… Buying travel supplies. Dou you need anything while I'm out?" There was an unnatural pause in between her statements, but he dismissed it for exhaustion.

"I'm fine" He declined her offer and darted back into his apartment to tell Raj that Lucy was approved.

{Alison}

"I'm fine," He stated running back inside, it took a lot of her energy not to tell him that he wasn't fine, but she somehow managed her way to the store. She bought a tub of instant coffee; Sheldon wouldn't have a coffee maker, and yet she would need it, badly.

_'Penny, what is Sheldon's favorite food in the whole world?' _she texted her friend.

'_Spaghetti with cut up hot dogs and strawberry quick' _Penny replied quickly.

She picked up the ingredients, pasta had to be the single most irritating food to cook, but she would do it anyway. She was fighting herself not to run away from the whole situation. It was like volunteering to leap into a bear trap.

She knew Sheldon would be mad; she would have some really bad news for him. She had to make an attempt to cheer him up, and to prove that she hadn't intended to cause harm. Here she was spending the one week anniversary of her first day in California in a Wal-Mart, She was in shock that it had just been one week; the moment of her dreams to the most chaotic mess of her life was only one week. Did she regret coming, no. She just wished she could prevent the impending disaster.

_'Penny, what is Sheldon's Favorite animal?' _she texted.

_'If I had to guess I'd say Koala… Why the questions?' _She answered.

_'Do I have to go over the whole thing?' _Alison replied jokingly.

Now she had to find a stuffed Koala, as she darted to the toy section, as indicated by a huge hanging sign.

_'Anything else I shud know?' _Alison asked in a frantic attempt to get any helpful information she could manage.

_'Yah, a ton, you wouldn't have everything if u bought the whole Wal-Mart.' _She replied. This text was followed by many more.

Now she had to get a plush koala. This was a challenge, at first she couldn't find any, and then she found 4 different kinds of plush koalas. Eventually she picked the one that best balanced cuteness, realism, and price, actually managing to do it without math this time. Penny's list left her scrambling through the store, mostly because she didn't know where anything was. In actuality she only needed 5 items, until she got to the last text.

_'Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty, Little Ball of fur; Happy Kitty, Sleepy Kitty, Purr, Purr, Purr' _Alison couldn't figure that out for the life of her. Sheldon didn't have a cat. She sat mulling over the words.

_Soft cats are Happy. Warm cats are typically sleeping. Warm Cats are happy. Freshly bathed cats are soft. Cats generally don't care about the softness of their fur, so that must be the point. Cat Shampoo, I need cat shampoo. Little ball of fur… Cats play with balls of yarn… And the purr, purr, purr is probably just for rhyme. _

Figuring that was all the sense she could make out of that she headed to the pet and the craft department.

_Why would Penny send me such a riddle, this is Penny. _

"Ah Wal-Mart. Catastrophe preparation for less." She muttered as she got into her car.

{Penny}

Alison was serious; she had told her that there had been a trace of the blue tinted virus on the rim of the travel cup. Penny had taken care of Sheldon on more than one occasion. She knew what it took. After helping her through a list of needed supplies she added the words to soft kitty on impulse. Alison wouldn't understand it now, but she'd get it. Alison is a smart girl; she'll put two and two together when the moment is right.

As she threw her things in her suitcase she remembered the time she was supposed to go to Switzerland with Leonard. She and Sheldon got sick before the trip, but Leonard said he still wanted to go. In the end Raj went, and she had to stay back and take care of him. She would tell Alison about that later. Alison was a good actress. She could convince him that it would all work out.

Alison had told her that she hated lying to Sheldon. Seriously these two would make an adorable couple. And the fact that neither one noticed it was further proof. If they both mad it through this week without losing their minds they would have to at least like each other…

* * *

I'm almost done with the renovated Chapter 1, Soon it will be up, the story retitled and given a proper summery. Then onto chapter two. Sorry about the wait, I seem to be fundamentally incapable of remembering to press the "Post New Chapter Button"


	12. The Affermation Conjecture

{Alison}

The whole morning had been a blur. She hardly slept again, the thought of having to lie to Sheldon kept her up. Sheldon was beyond brilliant. What she had learned to be total overkill might not be enough to convince Sheldon that she knew nothing, and that he needs to stay back. She had run the cup lid again and it seemed like she had a mess on her hands. She thought to remember to thank Raj, even though she had never met him, for bringing Lucy, the one extra person that made it necessary for her to drive Sheldon in a different car.

It was lunchtime. Sheldon planned to join her in the conference room. She could hardly breathe, she would have to make it through all of lunch while making casual conversation, albeit Sheldon's version of casual conversation, when all she could think about was how she had to get the others out without having had any contact with the virus, how she was so new and unproven that she'd be fired in a second if the public was exposed to the virus.

"Sheldon, I just wanted to let you know, at the end of lunch Leonard and I are going back to the building, I didn't finish packing, you were so right about starting early yesterday, and Leonard forgot something. Howard is going to take you home. Just use plenty of hand sanitizer and don't touch anything. You won't catch his cold." She spoke quickly refusing to let him interrupt her.

"But I-" He gasped in protest.

"YOU of all people defeated by the common cold? I mean really Sheldon. YOU are too careful for that," As she talked she was nearly in tears. Panicking from the prospect of the impossible mission, Sheldon was confident enough to take it as a complement as long as she could blink back the tears. Sheldon was too careful, but she wasn't, and this wasn't the common cold. It was all her fault. She wished it could have been her infected by the virus.

No one to blame but herself, and no one else hurt. This forced her to be at fault for harm to someone else. She hated that, she didn't like needing help with her problems or causing problems to others. This was what made her so independent, she was afraid that she would hurt someone, or have to ask someone for help.

{Sheldon}

"YOU of all people defeated by the common cold? I mean really Sheldon. YOU are too careful for that," Alison gushed. It almost looked as if she was about to cry.

"You'll get better; someday you will be able to avoid pathogens with greater accuracy," He told her, he nearly believed it himself. But his saying that seemed to drive her closer to tears. Maybe that wasn't it. Women are so confusing. She was a scientist; perhaps distracting her with her own branch of science would benefit her mood, but how…

""Women, with their X chromosome… Full of nothing but nonsense and twaddle…" if that didn't help he would have to resort to patting her on the back and saying 'There, There'

But it did, she smiled, the tears pooling at the bottom of her eyes, and retorted, "Oh really… Twaddle huh, twaddle that reduces the risk of color blindness, hemophilia-"about to continue she smiled even bigger, adding, "You knew that didn't you… You were just cheering me up."

That was it, science was the most important thing in all the world to her. When Ricky died scientific facts did little to nothing to console her, but the act of cuddling did. Alison was different. She was a certainly a worthy companion. She did want him to take an unnecessary risk in riding home with Howard, but she had admitted that he was right about early packing.

They ate their lunch Alison hardly said a word, so simply starting a conversation he asked her, "So, you haven't seen Star Trek, do you watch other Science Fiction?"

{Alison}

"So, you haven't seen Star Trek, do you watch other Science Fiction?" It was an innocent question, he had only been making simple conversation, but she felt her face turn beet red.

"Well hardly… I've tried not to. I've avoided it. I feared that I'd fail to become a geneticist. I didn't want to give myself anything to dream of back then. Now I've got all of history of Sci-Fi and super heroes to catch up on. I couldn't stop myself from watching the Spider-Man movies." She forced herself to speak slowly, though every part of her wanted to race through the words at incomprehensible speeds.

He didn't freak out; he simply smiled and responded, "Well, I guess we do…"

She beamed back, and gasped, "That would be perfect!" Taking another breath she said, "I guess it seems silly now, but back then I really wasn't sure if I'd make it." This would be great.

{Sheldon}

This would be great; she wanted to learn everything there is to know about all Sci-Fi ever. And who better to teach her. He had to stop himself from saying things that would be a spoiler, and considering that everything was a spoiler it would be hard to talk without spoiling something. Lunch ended quickly, she just smiled, looking like she could hardly breathe.

He could understand her excitement. If he had never seen Star Trek but suddenly got to watch all of the episodes and movies, he would be overjoyed. It made sense that she had broken her rules to watch the Spider-Man movies, he pictured her as a young budding geneticist, and the concept of Spider-Man, it was the logical breaking point.

Leonard came to find her in the conference room, she got up slowly and headed out the door.

"I have to go, see you later!" she smiled and shut the door. He sat for a minute longer before leaving as well.

{Leonard}

They got into Alison's car, she had agreed to let him drive, he had explained that it prevented car sickness; she nodded with a layered thought filled expression.

He had bought a dozen cookies at the store, and they had picked up some tacos from a takeout place. Alison explained that while it would be easier to make tacos she was extremely bad in a kitchen. The last time she had made tacos she burnt the meat, pureed the lettuce in the lettuce dryer, melted the cheese by leaving the bag too close to the stove, and stepped on the tortillas.

It was about two o'clock when she headed over to her apartment.

{Alison}

This was it. She sat crumpled against the wall of her bedroom holding a pillow to her chest. She had thrown the things from Wal-Mart into her suitcase along with her makeup and all of her pajamas and two pairs of jeans with shirts. It was too much to think about. She was surrendering herself to the virus. Taking care of Sheldon, who everyone said was a terrible patient. Her heart was racing, she was terrified, when she was a girl having a cold hardly phased her, but this, she would have run from without any further questions.

Maybe that's what growing up was about, putting on a brave face and doing something that would have scared the crap out of you 20 years ago. She was responsible so she couldn't run away. Nearly in tears for the second time that day, she begged for another way to fix this. '_If there is any other way to make this right, can I please think of it now?'_ She thought, but with a final search of the situation there was no other way.

Well there were ways out of this, but none of them were honorable. She had choices, but she couldn't use them. There was nothing she could do. She realized that she had shredded her nails and reached for the top drawer of her dresser, pulling out the Urchin Purple duct tape that she had color matched from her High School cheer uniform. Wrapping each of her finger nails in the memory filled color, she set the tape down. Then she pulled out the bag of twist ties that she had been gathering since high school.

"It's been a long time," she mumbled seeking inspiration. She looked at the clock and threw the bag in her suitcase along with some easy mac, and a packed of juice mix, and her frut poofz. She wanted to throw everything in the apartment into the suitcase. The uncertainty of it all… She hated it; she wanted to be able to plan for every possible event, but she couldn't. She threw the half box of tea and tossed an extra from the cabinet on instinct.

She ducked out the door; the others would be arriving early to allow for Sheldon's travel dissertation. They would be there in moments, she wasn't ready. She had spent nearly two hours in her room thinking, and now that she realized the amount of time that had passed she wanted just 5 more minutes. It was now or never, and never wasn't an option.

{Sheldon}

He had set up a power point detailing the trip, this would be nice neat and organized. He had finally arrived home, after a ride in a germ filled car with Howard. He had everything packed and cataloged, and everyone was going to be on time, except for Raj, he would be picking up Lucy and wouldn't get there for two hours. He couldn't see why he wanted to spend so much time with her at the cost of maintaining the routine. The whole thing was disrupting the group, Leonard hadn't packed everything last night, instead choosing to spend the rest of the evening in Penny's apartment.

When Penny moved in across the hall it had taken her forever to get used to the group's schedule. Alison was more than used to the schedule, and she had only been in California for 8 days. She was worth trusting.

At the moment he had more important things to consider. He had identified a rest stop at the one hour mark, as well as two emergency backup rest stops at the half hour and hour and a half locations, because Raj, no matter how many times he is reminded, never remembers to go before they left. Alison and Leonard had said they would pick up tacos. Tacos weren't ideal, but it was almost acceptable. He had gotten used to the fact that there would be schedule deviations for the next week, certainly they wouldn't be able to find the same restaurants, and even something similar would be a miracle.

He didn't see any reason why they had to go for a whole week. There was no point in going 5 days before the convention. Alison had a friend in San Diego but that wasn't a valid explanation for a weeklong trip. What did the others plan to do for a week? They had to know something. He had asked Alison what they would do once.

{…}

She had closed her eyes for a second, smiled- no grinned, stood up out off of her couch and practically screamed, "We can go sightseeing, plus Mandy has lived in San Diego since I started Grad School! She's a local-" She looked thrilled, pointing straight to Sheldon's nose she finished, "Plus she is a hotel manager, she has to know all of the most incredible places in the whole city! We can ask her exactly what we should do."

She was beaming; she closed her eyes and crossed her arms over her shoulders for a half a second then flung them open dangerously.

{…}

In hindsight her elation shouldn't have been enough to get him to settle for a plan that left so much to a hotel manager who only had about 3 and a half years of experience. It was insane. He had acted recklessly, and now it was too late for him to ask her any more questions. As the departure time approached she would only logically get more and more enthusiastic.

He opened the door to his apartment; Howard dragged his suitcase into the apartment and set it next to the pile of luggage Leonard had moved in front of the bookshelf. Sheldon went into his room to gather his luggage, and the flash drive that held the power point presentation of vacation preparation.

{Alison}

She left her apartment and walked into Sheldon's, not knocking as the door was open. She laid her suitcase on the floor by the couch.

"Where is Sheldon?" She whispered.

"His room," Leonard replied matching her volume.

"I am freaking out!" She squeaked.

"I can't tell you that you will be fine. All I can say is that If you have made it this far, you know what you are doing," Leonard reassured.

"Wow. You really think so?" She gasped.

"I know it! You have this crazy spark. I can say that you of all people can survive a week alone with Sheldon. I can't say anything about your crazy super vi-" Howard told her.

"Actually the modified virus is weaker than the wild type…" She corrected, brushing the hair out of her face, blushing unable to handle being complemented.

"You'll be just fine," Howard smiled.

* * *

I really hope that you have been enjoying this! Please let me know what you think if you have anything to say, I would love to read it. :)


	13. The Mission Initiation

{Alison}

Penny and Sheldon both walked into the room at the same time. Penny tossed her stuff on top of Leonard's, packed into two brightly colored patterned duffle bags. Sheldon set his things next to hers. That almost was enough to make me stop thinking about Sheldon, this was all her fault. The whole thing was more than a little daunting. She had been told by Howard, Leonard, Penny, Raj, AND Amy that Sheldon was a terrible patient.

The worst thing was how sudden the onset of symptoms would be. She would have no warning, but she would have to convince him that he was falling ill before he knew it. The worst part would be fighting his intellect. He wouldn't fall for anything unless she was perfect. She only had to act until the others were safely in the car driving away.

"Sheldon? Aren't you excited? This is going to be AMAZING!" She squealed, she hoped she wasn't over acting too much, but she knew that if she was going to get a response from Sheldon she would have to give him more than enough emotion to pull a reasonable explanation out of.

"Well I'm not dreading it…" He replied.

That would have to be enough; she sat down on the center of the couch as Sheldon, who had a white board covered with a white sheet set up in the living room in under a minute. Pulling out a tiny projector he opened the power point.

"Alright, we are currently at T-minus one hundred six minutes until departure. Raj and Lucy are set to arrive at T-minus 4 minutes-" He started.

"Question: What if Raj is late?" She asked, pulling for more details.

"That is taking into account that Raj will be late," He answered, his tone was sharp, but he seemed pleased that someone cared. A moment later he started talking about rest stops and sure she listened, but she didn't need to know that. He pulled up the map of the 5th floor of the hotel Mandy owned. He had thought out the most possibly and likely options for the pairs that had agreed to share a room. Raj and Lucy, with Amy and Stuart. It seemed a fitting combination, one that wouldn't be used, but still fitting.

The rooms were quite spread out; he had assigned a color to each room. They had numbers but no one argued. Alison knew the other's silence was out of fear of starting an argument, and she thought that it was cute.

"Leonard and Penny, will be in room Blue, Howard and Bernadette in room chartreuse, Raj, Lucy, Amy and Stewart are sharing the Purple room, and Alison and I will be in room 00BBBB," Sheldon listed.

She stood up immediately, squealing a bit. She gave up on breathing for a second, her chest tight with joy.

"It's a hex code approximation of the color of my teal bath towels!" She said in explanation to the group who were giving her and Sheldon weird looks, "I am deeply touched that you cared enough to figure it out!"

"I hardly had to figure it out, I know the color of the towel, and I know how to state colors in hexadecimal format," he stated.

"Well still, no one has ever done something like that," Alison grinned. Sheldon did things so naturally, and they lined up with the things she loved. In that moment the problem of the evening was far from her mind, she was simply overjoyed.

Sheldon smiled, she had been told that was rare. "Continuing with the presentation," he said pressing the next arrow on the remote. The screen changed to show the map recolored to show the rooms highlighted in their colors. He went on to talk about several different possible necessary changes in orientation and the most logical results, the location of the vending and ice machines and the elevators, on a map of the ground floor he pointed out the locations of the indoor pool and gym, the front desk, and the features of the lobby.

'_I only wish this were real'_ Alison thought to herself.

{Amy}

Sheldon was rambling on about every single detail of the hotel. The rest of the group simply sat eating their tacos, but Alison seemed a bit dazed and distant. It could be assumed she was wishing the trip could go on as planned. After seeing how she reacted to Sheldon's name for the room they were intended to share, and that Sheldon would do that for her, Amy couldn't help but see that Alison and Sheldon might be a better match that even she had been.

Sheldon was endearing in a special imperfect way. Amy was admittedly a bit jealous of Alison, but if it made both of them happy she would have to learn to live with it. She wasn't jealous that Sheldon had named the room for her bath towels, she was jealous of how happy that made her.

That in of its self should be enough to prove that they weren't meant to be. She was in love with the idea of loving Sheldon. He was an amazing person, but in reality he was hard to be in love with. Stewart understood the little emotional things that Sheldon ignored. And sure Stewart was not quite as smart as Sheldon, but at least he had a lovable personality.

She would have to get used to the fact that Alison and Sheldon would realize they were in love. They were already in love, but neither could know it. That wasn't what she wanted, fighting for an affectionate moment with Sheldon… Alison wouldn't have to fight. Amy could tell Alison didn't want a physical relationship, and Sheldon wouldn't know what to do with one. Amy had spent the majority of her relationship just begging for a quick kiss from him, something she never got.

It made her jealous that he had smiled at her like he did. That enforced that they might not crash and burn as a couple.

Amy tucked her head and whispered so softly that she couldn't even hear it, "It's for the best, he'll be happy."

If only she could tell herself that she'd be happy.

{Leonard}

Sheldon has always been called emotionless. They had come to live knowing that pretty much no matter what Sheldon would never show signs of empathy. Not to say that Alison was also emotionless, because she clearly wasn't. Alison was more expressive, and she didn't over expose her emotions. If she was happy enough to warrant attention she crammed it in Sheldon's face.

That was what he needed. Plus she found digital color systems touching. That was exactly the kind of thing only extreme nerds found touching. She had never seen any of Sheldon's favorite shows or movies and reportedly hasn't so much as seen a comic book. That didn't add up. She was a smart as the group, had borderline obsessive technical knowledge, and had, albeit an unfulfilled, interest in science fiction. She would fit in well here.

It didn't hurt that she was taking a huge blow for the group. He had to wonder if Penny would be willing to watch something… Maybe the first of the Nolan batman movies. He realized quickly that the answer would be a definite no. Even though he knew that a reboot would be a safer choice, Penny wouldn't like that. He liked Penny because she was strong, independent, and she was beautiful. Sheldon didn't care about looks, at least not as far as anyone could tell. Sheldon didn't know about romantic love, but maybe neither did Alison.

Time passed slowly, he could see why Alison was getting nervous. They had all finished dinner, and Sheldon had been announcing every passing minute since they reached T-minus 30.

{Alison}

He stood up to take the plates to the sink, a clock beeped and he broadcast, "T-minus 27 minutes" to the room.

Howard had just returned from picking up Bernadette from work. She tossed her things next to Howards and sat down. He took a second to look at the room, blinking a second time as if something didn't quite seem right. Her heart sank at the sight. Often the first symptom of any illness was a general sense of something being a bit off. He washed the plates, a bit slower than he usually did.

"This is like the time you all moved the table an inch to the left to throw me off…" He stated.

"Well you know we couldn't have moved the table, you have been sitting there the whole time," Alison stated with a lightly puzzled look on her face.

"I know, but something just… There is something wrong…" Sheldon said looking as if he was focusing in on something in the distance trying to make sense of it all.

The clock had beeped twice with no acknowledgement from him.

"Are you nervous about the trip?" She spoke softly, standing up and rushing to his side.

He only shook his head in response, she carefully guided him to his spot, he had described it as his point (0, 0, 0, 0) he did it in such a perfect way; it made her almost wish she had such a solidified location.

Time passed, sometimes he announced it, but usually it just beeped away. The others tried to go about their own business, making themselves seem occupied. He sat there, and she sat right next to him, socked feet tucked up next to her. He continued to take unnecessarily long blinks.

"Sheldon, are you sure you are feeling alright? You look a bit flushed…" She noted and placed a hand on his forehead, after closing her eyes for a second she almost whispered, "Where do you keep the thermometer?"

"We are going to start taking things down to the car." Bernadette announced as she looked at the clock and Sheldon's laminated schedule. The others followed her out all holding their things.

10 minutes. There were only 10 minutes before they would be leaving. The luggage was in three piles, cars A, B, and C, A being driven by Howard, containing Bernadette, Leonard and Penny, and C driven by Raj containing Lucy, Amy, and Stewart. Car B wouldn't leave. Well it would leave in her dreams. Sheldon sat silently, he heard the question, and he responded, not wanting to speak he simply looked towards the bathroom.

She walked lightly worried that she would find something she wasn't meant to find, if Sheldon went searching through her bathroom he would, but then again boys don't have periods… '_Plus if he sent me in here alone he truly believes that there is nothing that I shouldn't see, and that it is in the most logical place for a thermometer.' _

His elaborate toothbrush case caught her eye. It was brilliant, unnecessary, but brilliant.

"Okay this is Sheldon, so the thermometer must be easily accessible," she mumbled to herself thinking.

After a search of the room she found it sealed in a bag inside a plastic box on the bottom shelf. She walked out of the room, down the hallway, and back into the living room.

"Found it," She declared holding up the box. She then realized that she had missed the most obvious question, simply because she knew the answer, "Do you feel alright?"

"No, although I would like to attribute my minor gastrointestinal disruption to the sudden change in my diet," he stated it so nonchalantly. She couldn't help but be upset, she had caused this, and she couldn't tell him yet.

"So would I, but I think we should still take your temperature, it might be more serious than that," she lied again, it was all too much.

"Sheldon I have to tell you something, but first I need to make a little phone call," She blurted out, grabbing her phone and running out into the hallway. It was hard to dial her smartphone with the duct tape wrapped around her nails.

{Sheldon}

Alison had run out into the hall way, the way she started crying in the conference room,

"_You of all people defeated by the common cold? I mean really Sheldon. You are too careful for that."_

That wasn't a lie, this wasn't a cold. She knew, but she couldn't tell. How would she know? Her current behavior was further proof that she wanted to keep something a secret. She stepped in to the room a few minutes later.

"I have to tell you something, and you are going to hate me for it, so before I do I need to mention that in exactly 19 minutes the others will be 20 minutes away pulled over into a 7-11 parking lot." Alison said nervously.

"So they are one minute away?" He asked knowing the answer.

"Yes, but basically I'm your ride. If you feel better in 18 minutes then I will have them stop and let us catch up. If not I'll stay here and take care of you, but… there is one thing. I have a huge presentation at the convention, so if you get me sick you have to take care of me and make sure I get there safely," She was hardly breathing. Her words soft, light and panicked, he could tell that she wanted to believe that everything would be okay.

"Well, I don't really have any other logical options…" Sheldon admitted. He didn't want to agree to that, but trusting Alison seemed to be his only option. He was confused, or maybe disoriented…

"Okay," She said, "now tell me honestly, remember when-"

"I have an eidetic memory, of course I remember!" He gasped.

"Okay so when you said minor, did you mean it?" she inquired.

"I did at the time, but the word doesn't fit at all now…" he whispered.

"Lie down…" Alison instructed tossing him a teal pillow from her suitcase. She arranged the pillow and handed him the thermometer, "I'm making you tea, but you can't have it until after that beeps."

He only nodded, he felt sick, too sick for anything but thinking, and even that was becoming a challenge.

"103.6!" She gasped, in a state of total panic lasting about three seconds before she suddenly realized something important, "Heh, this is not a lab thermometer… I've been using Celsius since I started 8th grade… Every once in a while I forget that this is America, home of the least logical system of measurement. It scares the snot out of me when I do that…"

The water started boiling, Alison rushed to pour it into the tea cup.

"Extra ice-cubes, you are sick, we don't need to make your fever worse," She set the cup on the little table next to his spot, smiling nervously. Through the confusion, he realized to be primarily driven by a dizzy disbelief, a drowsy half-aware state, two things stood out: He was definitely nauseated, and that Alison Carter sincerely cared about something. And it was probably him.

A few sips of tea later he could almost think. Alison stepped into the kitchen he wasn't even sure why. The next think he knew he was sending his mind to a million places, simply trying to distract himself. Working out an equation from earlier he started to pace through the room walking circles around the couch. It wasn't long until he noticed that he had a hand to his stomach.

She was clearly pretending not to notice. She was counting forks. He froze in place, it only lasted a moment, he didn't say a word as he ran to the bathroom, and he didn't have to. He heard a fork clatter against the ground, he knew she was following him.

Sorry about the really bad wait, I had some big computer issues (that still aren't resolved) so it took a while to get this done. Having to use the on-screen keyboard for the letter C really kills your motivation to write. I might not get another update out for about 2 weeks. I am not quitting but I just wanted to warn you just in case I get stuck on some RL things. Reviews are greatly appreciated. Next chapter is going to be a little crazy…


	14. The Logical Realization

AN: There are some/a lot of references to Star Trek in this (and maybe following) chapters, as a reminder I own nothing but the plot and Alison.

{Alison}

Pacing was a sign of uneasiness, she knew this, but she didn't want to cling to his side, she wouldn't want that. Not yet, plus she didn't know what to do, so she decided to go stand in the kitchen, aware of the irony as her hands picked up a fork. This would begin and end the same way, her holding the four tined utensil. She fought back laughter at the prospect that it could be the same fork. Staring at it she poked each tine.

It was only moments after that Sheldon turned and ran down the hallway, she ran after him, letting the fork clatter to the floor. She arrived at the door, she wanted to say something, but she didn't know what to say. 'Are you okay' would be beyond stupid; she could hear from this side of the door that he was not okay. She hated asking stupid questions, it was demeaning both to her and the person who had to answer it.

Eventually the noises indicated that he was no longer vomiting, and it wasn't long before he announced, "Alison I know you are standing there, I can see your feet under the door."

She opened the door and stepped into the bathroom.

"I know, I just don't know what to do, I've never been in this situation, and I'm not entirely sure of the socially appropriate response," She mumbled, deciding to be totally honest.

"Dr. Carter, a woman of your intellect shouldn't worry about the socially appropriate response, so what is your response," Sheldon scolded her b. She couldn't imagine him saying that, it wasn't how he would tell her to live by her rules, not the world's.

"I wish I could…" She sighed offering her hand to help him up.

She guided him to his spot on the couch, another example of his own rules. He was thought of as crazy for his rules, but in her eyes it is much better to be called crazy, but not care about other people's opinions, than to live by rules set by people who don't know you. Especially when those rules drive her crazy.

"Dr. Cooper, I truly believe you to be in a state of feverish semi-delirium," the clinical euphemism free tone hitting her ears, it felt a bit shocking, but something about it felt familiar, perfect. "Not that what I am about to say will help that any, but I might as well get it out of the way now," She paused, hoping she could hold the matter of fact tone a bit longer before she broke down into a wavering nervous disaster, "I kind of sort of know how you got sick, and it is kind of sort of my fault." The stoic mask crumbled.

"What?" Sheldon gasped.

_'Here we go Carter. This is everything, you just got yourself right where you need to be, you have to finish your explanation.'_ She thought nervously.

"I swear it was a total accident!" She stopped for a deep breath, "You have fallen ill to a genetically modified form of Adenovirus 40. It is significantly weaker than the wild type, but it is clearly still volatile, and more than likely highly contagious, you have every right to be totally mad at me, but keep in mind that for one week I'm all you've got. Plus even if you decide that I'm an unnecessary risk in your life, I've taken one for you just by being here."

"Just exactly how wa-" he started, before closing his eyes and placing his hand back over his stomach.

"How were you infected?" she asked, knowing what he was asking, he nodded and she explained, "It all started in the lab on Monday, I borrowed your hand sanitizer, you remember that… in the lab Lisa accidentally got some of the solution that was supporting the virus on my hands, I used the hand sanitizer and threw it back in my bag. I returned it to you before I handed you a fork, but I got eye shadow on my hands when I zipped my backpack, so I washed my hands before I set out their forks…"

{Sheldon}

He was miserable. Nearly every part of him wanted to be furious with her, but something wouldn't let him. All he wanted to do was sink down into the couch and ignore it all. He knew why she had seemed so worried and had something to hide.

"I'm not angry…" he managed.

"Open your eyes," Alison directed.

He blinked his eyes open, the colorful geneticist was standing in front of him, holding a plush koala. He fought to maintain a balance between melting entirely and not worsening his condition.

"How did you-?" he mumbled before giving up on talking.

"I do my research…" her tone of voice was one of complete glee. As if his happiness made her happy…

"And on another note, I brought the tea for you… I figured you would appreciate that, as soon as you noticed…" she held the still warm cup out to him still smiling.

Alison was more than just worth having around. She genuinely wanted to make him happy. He had to admit this, he found out that Leonard had intentionally stranded him alone with a cold, and Penny had to come take care of him. She easily could have done that. Instead she cleared the others out to protect them, and stayed behind to take care of him, a man she had only known for 8 days.

All of this appreciative thinking was getting to be a bit much given his condition. "Alison, will you get the season one Star Trek box out of the front pocket of my suitcase?"

She nodded and he took another sip of his tea. Alison's sweetness was not an effective counteractive force to his nausea, but it was nice to feel truly cared for. Penny was kind, but she was Penny, and this is Alison. Penny was tough, Alison was compassionate… Howard had said that he and Raj stuck around because they liked Leonard, not that he cared, but it was special to have someone choose him as a friend. Plus it meant that someone else appreciated his genius.

"If it wouldn't be a total pain, we should start from the beginning; I have to do things in order…" She requested.

"Well is there any other way?" he asked, her only response was a smile and a click of the remote.

{Alison}

He understood the importance of following intended chronology. She set the remote down and watched. She knew beyond doubt that this was Sheldon's favorite show in the history of existence. She hoped she would like it… She really did. But she didn't react well to pressure, and she didn't think she could fake it forever if she didn't. She had to like it, it was important to Sheldon, and Sheldon is definitely smart enough to know what he is talking about…

It didn't take her long to realize that the game the characters that she presumed to be main were playing a game in shocking resemblance to the chess gamed she had accidentally interrupted on Sunday. Of course she knew the three player replacement to be of Sheldon's creation. This proved the show's importance to the guys, beyond anything. She didn't notice it, but she scooted a tiny bit closer to Sheldon. Increasing her infection risk crossed her mind, but she shook it off. She was almost guaranteed to catch it, no matter what. She had to keep that off her mind. She was here to take care of Sheldon; she couldn't let her concern get in the way of that.

A scene change and a half later it hit her,

"He played most illogically. His next move should have been the rook," the sentence came through the TV speakers and hit her eardrums. She knew the character that said it to be Mister Spock, a name she had heard tossed about the group, she had heard before, but she never knew… Her mind was whirring. She wanted to know everything, she wanted more context. She wanted to know for sure that this was the source of Sheldon's repetition of the word, it was the only thing that made any sense, but she didn't trust her instinct. She still had to say something.

"Sheldon-" She mumbled hitting pause, "Remem- no. The second thing I ever said to you was: 'Well, I guess it's totally logical to start with the labeled boxes, huh? People smuggling in cocaine don't right "Cocaine" on the box...' since that time you have said the word logical twice. This is why," She stated flatly, she couldn't just ask, she had to know.

{Sheldon}

He nodded in reply.

"This makes so much sense that I can't explain it!" she nearly shrieked, before throwing her arms around him rapidly. She stopped only an inch away from hitting him, and then softly let her arms touch his chest and back.

Her soft hug was comforting without being too much. He was grateful for it. He set one of his arms on her shoulder, he didn't want to move. Sure she had just painfully contradicted herself, but her gentle, detached physical contact was welcome. It was warm, but not smothering. He wanted to ask what, even though he could take a guess, or at least remain there in the loose hug for a few moments longer. His standards faded quickly to where he would have been happy to flop over and lie in stillness on the couch. There was a moment where he would take anything other than the reality he knew to be impending.

He pulled both of his hands back over his stomach.

"Oh, Sheldon!" She gasped, grabbing a washcloth from seemingly nowhere, turning on the sink and thoroughly drenching it before throwing it in the freezer.

He hardly had time to acknowledge the gesture. Nausea consumed his awareness. All he could see was the hallway, and it was only a moment before he felt Alison's hand, damp and cool, touch his back. Blurry, that was the most fitting description of how he felt.

His stomach violently expelled its contents into the toilet. Alison's hand remained unwaveringly in place.

He didn't have to try to picture her, it was all too easy. She would be standing there; her hand might as well be super glued to his back, biting the inside of her lip, almost unnoticeable, unless you are looking for it. Stiff as a board except for her eyes, they would be darting around the room giving away the occupied state of her mind.

The attack subsided, and he leaned his back against the sink.

"I forgot to blink. For like 3 minutes."

That was all she said, her eyes were red, but not tearful. Maybe she wasn't making excuses or covering something up but maybe her stiff attitude did cause her to forget to blink.

"We should call the guys. They need to know you are definitely not feeling better," she suggested.

They managed their way to the couch. Alison set the partially frozen washcloth on his forehead. The first moment it touched his head the chill was startling, but as it slipped into his skin it was relaxing, he couldn't think anything other than how good the cold towel felt.

"I better call the guys, they need to know that you are definitely not feeling better," She suggested pulling out her phone.

{Penny}

She was waiting for the call. When her cell rang and the picture of the eccentric scientist popped up on the screen she answered it immediately.

"Penny, Hey, I'd say that I'm Alison, but that would be totally unnecessary, you have my number in your phone, and you know what my voice sounds like," She rambled through the phone line.

Alison is the only person where such a statement was normal, not a sign of kidnapping, or an imposter.

"You are on speakerphone to Howard, Bernadette, and Leonard," Penny announced.

"Sheldon seems to have been hit by a terrible case of Viral Gastroenteritis, Sheldon say something," She tried to explain, but while everyone else in the car knew what that meant she was clueless. The casual tone that Alison had used to express something, upset, but so casual for such complicated words.

"Hello," She heard Sheldon mumble into the phone. He sounded terrible. Whatever Alison said he had must be dreadful…

"I'm sorry what is that?" Penny inquired feeling stupid for having to ask.

"That was Sheldon!" Alison explained, almost yelling.

"No, the viral um… I don't know…" She should have known Alison wouldn't see anything to question there.

"Viral Gastroenteritis…" She repeated flatly.

'_yes, of course that is so much clearer…'_

"But, um what is that?"

She overheard Sheldon quickly mumble something in the background before Alison replied.

"Well, for those who have fallen victim to an excruciatingly over perpetuated misconception, the stomach flu, despite having absolutely no relation to Influenza," Alison rambled on.

She clearly had two modes for explaining things, technical terms or ridiculously big words she didn't know.

"So… he has the stomach flu?" She asked checking her understanding.

"Sure, if you insist on saying it like that…" the geneticist sighed.

Of course, this is the cost of dating Leonard. Living in direct contact with 7 scientists, most people would know that not understanding half of what they say didn't mean you were stupid. It only meant that you don't have the same talent for memorizing useless information. Alison was actually cool, when she tried.

And when she didn't, Penny needs a dictionary. The difference between Alison and Sheldon was a few quirks and an understanding of social rules. If they spent too much time together they would definitely win an award for cutest couple, but also most impossible to be around.

"I'll call the other car," Bernadette volunteered from the front seat.

Penny hung up her cell and set it down on the seat. Leonard leaned his head on her shoulder.

"You okay?" She asked giving him a little hug.

"I'll be fine," Leonard smiled a bit and sat up.

Bernadette placed the call; it was short, cut off by Howard asking Leonard if he would want to drive.

"Maybe at the rest stop, I'll be fine until then," he assured, and then put his head back on her shoulder, "This actually makes it a little worse, but it's worth it."

"Well, alright, but make sure you are okay…" she whispered.

She caught herself feeling a bit jealous of Alison. Not because she had a chance with Sheldon, but because she had something so perfect, and she didn't even see it yet. It was cute. It was picturesque.

The Fluff shall be forthcoming! And prepare for the tales from the hotel! My apologies for any glaring Star Trek related errors (as well as others) I only found an online typed transcript to work off of.


	15. The Rest Stop Departure

{Alison}

"Alison?" he weakly asked lifting the washcloth off of his face. Over the past, two hours the white cloth square had been rinsed, drenched, and thrown into the freezer uncountable times. A number that directly correlated with the number of times Sheldon had rushed down the hallway into the bathroom. They had worked their way through the first 3 and a half episodes of Star Trek. She would have rather not been stuck trying to remember every detail and keeping tabs on Sheldon. He had told her that he didn't need to see to enjoy it, that he knew every episode in and out. So she had to know everything that happens.

His memory was far superior to hers, she had an amazing memory as far as people go, but that made it harder, an average person would know better than to try to keep up with Sheldon. She was at the exact point where it was almost possible, but more of a challenge than most people would ever dare to take on. She knew that Star Trek was something Sheldon adored, and some tiny part of her didn't want to crush his expectation. She didn't have to think about how Sheldon isn't like normal guys. Normal guys would expect her to understand stupid things like sports or cars, normal guys want sex more than actual love.

Sheldon was the opposite. Sheldon didn't care about cars or sports, he disapproved of physical contact, and sure he is often apathetic, but Alison could think of more than a handful of times where she disapproved of her emotions. She was a scientist, above all else, then she was a girl. Even at age 27 she didn't think of herself as a woman.

Women know where they are going with their lives. Women look for a romantic relationship. She was sitting on a couch next to a sick friend, watching a long syndicated sci-fi show. That was friendship. There was nothing romantic about that. Actually to most women that was a cue to climb out the window and down the side of the building. This was perfect. All her life she had wanted to find a guy, who had no hidden intentions, she had just wanted to live for a little while. In this society that was impossible.

The Mister Spock had said the word "Logical" or some form of it at least six times. Logic, as opposed to spasticity irrationality, everything she had ever done was either a forced little trained reaction to blend into a social situation, anxiety based, or carefully thought out. Most women could explain what anger is. She had learned the appropriate response, all her life she just wanted the choice to blend in or stand out, at her discretion. There was a fine line between the two. She could never find it. Why one person can brush their teeth in class and that is socially acceptable, but she can't fix her hair.

It was stupid, but that was how she learned to live, trying to pick out the tiny little boundaries between socially acceptable and socially inappropriate. She never could find them.

{Penny}

They had been at the rest stop for nearly an hour. It was almost 8:30. She could say that the majority of the group were paired off and sitting on the blue painted benches. Raj and Lucy were whispering about something or other, Amy and Stewart were talking, with an occasional short kiss, but that was where the picturesque scene ended. Leonard had agreed to let Howard drive his car. That was probably a mistake, because Bernadette wanted to sit in the front with him, well it didn't help that he wanted to sit with Penny, but that put Leonard in the back seat.

This irritated his motion sickness, so they agreed to switch off at the rest stop. That all seemed perfect in concept, but when they got there Leonard almost threw up down the side of the car. They somehow managed to get him inside. Howard went back out and discovered they had a nail in the tire. It wasn't leaking and could have been there for miles. That wouldn't have been a problem if he hadn't pulled it out, but he did. They had a spare, but no jack. So they had to wait for the emergency road service team to show up with a jack. It had been nearly an hour, but Leonard was recuperating. That meant he was lying down on their bench and Penny kneeled next to him.

Howard was on the phone yelling at the company, while Bernadette had consumed a ridiculous amount of various mountain dew products from the vending machine. Every once in a while she screamed something into the phone in her usual yelling voice. Howard finally seemed to get the point across to the receptionist.

"They should be here in 15 minutes, which probably means 30. I can confirm that the truck has left the building finally," He announced.

A few onlookers stared in question, but in the end they turned around and laughed a bit. She wanted to assume that they were thinking about how they had had car trouble in the past, even though it was more obvious that they looked stupid. It was chaos. Amy and Stewart were the only couple in their party that looked the slightest bit normal. Raj and Lucy seemed to sense that the group had become the center of attention and were looking out at the beautiful tiled lobby with shock and a touch of dismay.

She and Leonard looked a bit odd. He was lying flat on his stomach on a public bench in the middle of everything, while she sat on the floor by his head. Even that didn't compare to Bernadette, who was almost literally bouncing off the walls. The nearly untouched bench was claimed for Howard and herself, marked only by her purse and a pile of empty soda bottles. What was that, like seven?

That wasn't dangerous, but certainly not good.

{Sheldon}

As the dialogue played he could picture the corresponding scene perfectly. The washcloth brought relief, so he had no reason to try to see. Except, he wanted to know what Alison thought, he couldn't help but peek out every once in a while. If she didn't absolutely adore the show that would have to be the end of their short lived friendship, she was great, but this was what Leonard would call a deal breaker. He could only manage a little glimpse without sitting up.

And sitting up was completely out of the question. He had a terrible headache; all he wanted to do was lie on his back, with Alison not quite sitting on his knees, but he didn't want to push her to the floor, and look up at the dim light coming through the cold white cloth, with his left hand across his stomach and his right touching his forehead. He almost though he could fall asleep.

Alison paused the show, nearing the end of the 4th episode, and asked, "Okay you are seriously being really quiet, but I know you aren't asleep. How are you feeling?"

He pulled the cloth off of his face and pushed himself up a half inch.

"I am nauseated and I have quite a headache," he replied with one concise sentence before flopping back down, "After this episode I think I would like to try to get some sleep."

She hit play; he guessed making an effort to get him to sleep faster.

The episode ended shortly after, and she whispered nearly inaudibly, "Nine" she turned off the TV. He was hardly sure he heard the number, but she had to have said it.

The lights had been off in the apartment, now it was completely dark, he could hardly see her right in front of him.

"I'll sleep on the chair, you take the couch," Alison said sweetly.

"Will you sing soft kitty to me?" he asked not thinking that she wouldn't know it.

{Alison}

Soft Kitty… Penny she… Soft Kitty is a song! I know the words; I remember the words from the text, the rhythm if fairly obvious, but what about the tune!

"I can try…" She spit out realizing that she needed to say something. A look of shock crossed his face as he realized that she shouldn't know the song.

"Penny texted the lyrics to me, I didn't know it at the time, but if you tell her that I bought yarn and cat shampoo, I will, oh, who am I kidding… but really" She smiled and brushed the hair out of her face.

"Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty, Little ball of fur," she sung softly and touched his forehead, "Happy Kitty, Sleepy Kitty, Purr, Purr, Purr."

She kissed his forehead just next to where she had placed her hand.

She wanted to ask how far off the real tune she had been. She didn't. She could ask that later, she decided it smarter to just flop down into the armchair and think.

"Promise you'll wake me up if you don't feel well," she whispered not wanting him to feel like he should lie in misery alone just because he didn't want to bother her. She really didn't mind. She sat in the chair, kicked her legs over one arm and set her head on the bottom of the other. Most people would consider it an awkward sleeping position, but she didn't see any problem with it.

She closed her eyes and instantly realized how overwhelmingly tired she really was. It occurred to her that she hadn't slept properly in two nights. She wanted to run every detail of the four episodes through her mind one last time, just to make sure she remembered. She knew that fear and some other emotions heightened your senses and increased your ability to remember things. Over the years she had learned to manipulate that and switch herself into a "mode" where she could remember with increased accuracy.

It would have been perfect to run a quick memory check, but she knew it was nearly certain that she would get sick. More than likely she was already infected. If she didn't get some sleep while she could it might be days before she would have another opportunity. As soon as she stopped fighting it she was out like a light.

{Leonard}

Howard had darted outside only five minutes before. He returned inside, shouting "Thank you so much, you are AMAZING at changing tires!" to the man driving the repair truck. He was dripping wet, it had started pouring down rain, but the one person had managed to change the tire nearly impossibly fast.

"Well, we are ready to hit the road!" He exclaimed in his typical boisterous excited voice.

Bernadette bolted out to the car grabbing his hand and dragging him half the way.

Penny held out her hand to help him up, and when he accepted the offer she pulled him to his feet. He looked back to see Raj and Lucy walking to the door hand in hand. Stewart and Amy were rushing around to pick up their things and join to group outside in the rain. By the time he turned back around he and Penny had nearly made it to the door.

The next thing he knew raindrops were hitting his head at such a rate that he couldn't even begin to attempt to count them. He ran blindly through the rain after Howard and Bernadette, relying on the assumption that between his and Penny's judgment they would make it to the car. When they finally made it across the parking lot he opened Penny's door before rushing to the driver's side door and leaping into the car.

He leaned over and gave Penny a quick kiss before turning back to Howard and Bernadette and asking, "You wouldn't happen to have a towel, would you?"

Howard only shook his head.

"Well, we have another hour of driving, let's just hope it stops raining before we get to the hotel," Leonard indicated.

There was only about 15 minutes of average highway driving before Penny got a phone call.

"Hey Alison, you are going on speaker phone," Penny greeted her as she pressed the little button.

"Sleeping is going to be impossible. Sheldon is really sick. I thought I'd call to see how you liked the hotel while he is resting," her perky voice came through the speakers.

"Actually we hit some car trouble, we are about 45 minutes away, unless we hit this little traffic block that we seem to be getting close to," Leonard told her.

"Oh, no! What happened?" Alison inquired.

"We realized that we were getting a flat at the rest stop. There was a nail in the tire… Then we had to call a company to get a jack… They took an hour to arrive, but now we are back on the road…" Howard interjected.

Sheldon mumbled something too softly for it to be heard, no doubt about the horrible crimes they just committed against the schedule.

"Well, I'm sure Mandy is working the night shift at the desk… She is such a night owl…" Alison spoke with detached sentences, and then wailed, "I wish you the best of luck on your travels but I must rush off to the end of the hallway!"

The phone clicked off, leaving no question as to the location and state of both Alison and Sheldon. Just the thought of Sheldon sick made him pity him.

"Did you hear the way she said goodbye? I have to say it. She and Sheldon would make an adorable couple," Howard exclaimed.

"Yeah, but the cute thing is that they don't see it," Penny interjected.

"Are you kidding, if they got together, well we can all admit that Sheldon can be annoying, to put it nicely. Together they would be the value of Sheldon's capacity for being annoying squared," Leonard countered, "I mean honestly, she is back there watching Star Trek, we will either get a catastrophic explosion, or an inseparable force."

"I think if we," Penny pointed to herself and Bernadette, "drag her out for girls night every once in a while we can keep her sane, and maybe her subtlety will rub off on Sheldon," she proposed.

He could almost feel Penny rolling her eyes, and mouthing "nerd love" to herself in the side mirror. If only she were open to the idea of watching something he liked. Sure that would be great but, that is what the guys are for. Sheldon needed someone who could be irrational and selfless for long enough to catch his attention, and it seemed like that was just what Alison was doing.

He remembered the time he called a code milky green on Sheldon with a cold and basically abandoned him and left him at Penny's mercy. Alison did the opposite. He had known Sheldon for years and left him to his own devices, but Alison knows him for just a week and saves them. She's either crazy or she doesn't know she's in love. And clearly she isn't totally crazy. She does so much for Sheldon, and doesn't get much recognition, all he wants is to get Penny hooked on one Science Fiction series…

* * *

Okay I have decided how I want to format this story!The Attraction Hypothesis is going to be Act 1 of ? There are only going to be about 5-6 in universe days left in act 1, but an undecided number of chapters. Thank you for reading and the next update is on it's way!


	16. The Hidden Explanation

{Sheldon}

He could only think of two things he wanted, himself to fall asleep, or Alison to wake up. He wasn't about to fall asleep, and he didn't want to wake Alison up. She deserved to sleep while she could; after all, he was fine. Miserable, but he knew there was nothing she could about that. Still, he couldn't deny that there was something inherently comforting about having someone who truly cares about you. If he didn't think that Alison deserved to sleep, he would have woken her up a while ago. A long while ago.

He had briefly fallen asleep, he assumed based on the passage of time, though only a half hour. He might have slept for 18 minutes, best case. Probably more like nine. He hoped that Alison was closer to 30. He hoped that she might suddenly wake up. But most likely that wouldn't happen for another hour. Human sleep cycles averaged around 90 minutes. So her suddenly waking up was tragically improbable. Placing a hand over his stomach he tried to settle in, Alison would eventually wake up, even if it's tomorrow morning. He wanted to settle in, he wanted to melt into the couch. He knew he couldn't literally, but he still tried to relax all of his muscles.

Just as he had finally succeeded he sneezed. Just a sneeze, but effectively undoing all of the effort put into relaxing.

"SHELDON" She wailed and bolted upright, reaching her feet and facing him nearly instantly.

{Alison}

She caught herself, telling herself that this isn't how she should act, that this was a risk, that she shouldn't let herself expose her real thoughts. She had never let anyone in, Mandy briefly, but no one for real. She tightened, one arm at her side, and the other clutching her elbow. She had taken this pose of nervous tension that reveals nothing but her reclusive nature many times, it was nearly instinctual. But his reaction threw her off more than her own.

He slowly stood up and gave her a loose hug.

"It was just a sneeze, I'm fine," he reassured, "I'm kind of glad you are up…"

"Well then, I'm glad to be up," she smiled, and she wasn't lying. Sleep was never of high importance to her. Even now when she knew she should at least try to sleep. She couldn't sleep with unfinished business. And a sick Sheldon was definitely unfinished business.

He sat back down on the couch, and she followed, sitting next to him.

"Okay so tell me honestly…" He didn't finish, but he didn't have to, there was only one thing he could possibly be talking about. He wanted her official opinion on Star Trek.

"I don't know enough to love it, but I'm definitely intrigued-" She beamed, hardly able to breathe, thrilled as she thought over the situation. She was holding back, she was elated to finally be giving herself the freedom to sink into some classic science fiction.

She hadn't wanted to become a dreamer. She didn't want to fill her mind with incredible things, and then not get her chance to shine. Sure she didn't plan on being able to actually do something like movies indicated, but there was something about the look of a stark white lab room that thrilled her. It was just the feel of a proper space.

It felt good to be free. Even though she was the only thing holding herself back. To finally give yourself the go-ahead on something you have always refrained from knowing.

{Sheldon}

"Alison, as great as that sounds, you are quivering," he flatly told her. She was grinning and out of breath. There was something she wasn't saying. He didn't want to care. She liked it; he had gotten her hooked, officially. That should have been enough, but it wasn't. She wanted to say something more, or maybe not wanted, but there was more to be said, and just knowing that there was more to her answer made him want to know.

"I'm just… Thinking," She gave her useless answer.

"Oh, please, we are always thinking. I don't doubt that you are thinking but-" he started, but couldn't finish. He placed his hand back over his stomach, shutting his eyes. He fought to finish his statement, "but that doesn't answer… anything really."

Talking was getting tiring. He had to get her to talk, while saying as little as possible. Suddenly his whole world had become this apartment, and this Dr. Carter.

"Are you…?" Alison asked, not able to finish her question. Perhaps if this was the case now wasn't the best time for him to get answers as to what she wasn't saying. He had to know why she was acting like this, it didn't make sense. Well, it did, but any way he could imagine there had to be another detail.

"Asking what's wrong." Sheldon spat out.

"I suppose you wouldn't believe me if I said 'nothing'..." She smiled, tears in the corners of her eyes, the same way she had in the conference room, smiling, and clearly some part happy, but something hurting her. "I'm happy, kind of, in this reverse way where absolutely nothing makes sense because of it, oh great, I guess I better explain this…"

"Well it all started about 20 years ago," Her voice waivered, "I was little, just starting school, cute, inherently nerdy, and painfully naïve," She paused, and he took the time to picture that. It almost hurt how clearly he could. "So there I was, in the first grade. Kindergarten was fine; I was expecting more of the same, one best friend, and a class full of people who couldn't care less about me. To put it simply, I really didn't get that," She articulated.

{Alison}

"I had the misfortune of meeting one girl, a pathological liar, with the makings of a social outcast, and do I need to even mention that she was stronger than me, I mean even now look at these noodle arms…" She started. All she could think about was why she was even telling him this story. She knew why, but she couldn't think of any reason why she would divulge everything to Sheldon. A week ago they hardly knew each other.

"She pretty much decided that she hated me for no reason, before she got to know me. And, well, it only got worse when she did. Imagine me, a little girl, dressed in a painful amount of pink and glitter, looking up at the teacher with big hopeful eyes, and asking her 'Are we doing Science today?' to her I was a joke," she felt the first tears start to slip. "I didn't notice that most of my classmates didn't care, that to them science was just an excuse for the teacher to take us outside to look at the weather. I couldn't see it back then, and maybe neither did she, but something about a perky, little nerd, who actually had a chance to shift the paradigm at least a little, she decided I was dangerous."

"I couldn't take it after a while, so I figured if I couldn't be myself I would just be nothing. After all, the innocuous people rarely get teased, all though in hind sight I'd almost say she might have been jealous of me. Maybe she thought that if someone like me, a hopeless nerd in her eyes, could have a best friend, could be almost popular; there was no reason she shouldn't. I had a chance to be something, and maybe she didn't mean me any harm. I want to imagine she just didn't know how it hurt me. I avoided her for 2 whole years after that," she could hear the tearful clarity slipping into her voice.

She stood in front of the board again, reliving the moment where she blinked back tears as soon as she read her name on the class list. She felt the pressure of her would collapse on top of her, telling herself to give her another chance.

"Fourth Grade, we were in the same class again. Some little piece of me snapped once and for all. I faked a smile and tried to give her a second chance. And it was a real chance, I honestly meant everything I said, we became great friends, and it was great for a while," she explained, this was the hard part, she felt her chest tighten, a knot forming in her throat, the muscles refusing to let her breathe, "But it wasn't, It never was. I didn't see that I wasn't really happy. I didn't know that I was faking it all. I stripped back all of the defining characteristics of my personality and just was, I left myself a ball of energy."

"It wasn't a conscious decision, but none the less, I missed the opportunity to be myself. I missed the best friend I ever had. I loved science still; I couldn't erase that for anything. But I didn't always get it. My teacher decided I probably had ADHD. Yeah, THAT was the problem. And- here's the part that reinforces my jealousy theory- For about four years we were best friends. And that appeased her. Having "me" as a friend was enough for her, even if it wasn't the real me." She was hardly doing better than stammering.

"Just before she moved away things took a turn for the worst, well, no things were the same, but I started to see it. The subtle glances that killed my confidence and shut me up, how we never were real friends; but if it was just us, and no one else, it felt real," She sobbed, "I spent so long conditioning myself to hide, but then I discovered that I was really just hiding from myself. My opinions and self-expression trained away so I could hide from a bully, it's silly isn't it."

{Sheldon}

She looked up at him, her teal-y aqua eyes clearer than ever, extenuated by her red face and the thin teary veil over them.

"I trust you, more than anyone I have ever met," the sticky sound wiped flat from her voice. She was totally sincere, "No really, I have told myself all these years that the only way to exist is to hide myself from everyone, including myself, and now there is you, you have always done the things I forbade myself. That is why this feels so magical. I am finally giving myself permission to sink my imagination into a foreign world, and it feels like I'm flying."

He didn't know how to respond to that, and he didn't think she did either. He placed an arm around her shoulder, and she set her forehead on his chest. It didn't feel forced, they were close to each other, closer than he would usually allow, but it felt right. She trusted him with everything, and he understood. She was a girl, and he actually had answers. She was different; she was nothing like Amy, or any other girl. She was reclusive and shy, yet sociable; it was a strange combination, a strange combination for a mysterious girl. And Raj says Sci-Fi is a turn off…

Alison trusted him so much after only a week. 9 days ago they had never heard of each other. She had just told him things that she had clearly never told anyone. There was no way this friendship could break apart. For once that was a huge relief.

Sorry for the wait, this was kind of hard for me to write, but I hope it turned out well. There will be a bit for the sub plot next chapter J


	17. The Night Toast Catastrophe

{Leonard}

After unloading the car in the pouring rain, they stood in the lobby, still dripping wet when a woman of average height walked in.

"I assume you must be friends of Alison, in that case your rooms are on the fourth floor, the Elevator and stairs are located at the end of the hallway to the right," she stated motioning to the hallway, "The rainy night towel cart is right there in that corner, you can place the used towels in the bin to the left, or leave them in the bathrooms for maintenance to collect," she had clearly done this a million times, but she still had a sincere smile.

"She said you were a night owl…" Penny told her.

"Yeah, I suppose it's true," she looked a bit taken back; his best guess was that she was in a professional mode, not prepared to make personal replies. Penny clearly didn't see this.

"Well, it's great meeting you, maybe we will have the opportunity to get to know each other better at another time, but now I think it's best if we get up to our rooms, it is starting to get kind of late," he covered. It was getting late; it was almost 10:30 after they had gotten caught in terrible traffic.

They barely fit into the elevator in two loads, with the first load agreeing to wait for the second to arrive before moving. Sheldon had suggested rooms, but no one remembered what he had said. Plus they were assigned colors, they corresponded to room numbers, but no one care to remember them.

"Okay, so how are we going to do this?" Howard asked.

"We could all just randomly pick a door…" Penny suggested.

"Or we could-" Amy started, clearly about to start complicating things, and reminding everyone why she and Sheldon lasted as long as they did.

"Why don't we just draw room keys and go to whatever room we get…" he suggested, met with resounding agreement, and Amy quickly realized she was out numbered.

Numbers were drawn and the group separated, luggage in tow, off to the different rooms.

He and Penny headed off to room 411.

{Lucy}

402. They had taken room 402, the room farthest from the others. Their neighbors would all be total strangers. At least they were next to the ice and vending machines… And the Elevator was just around the corner.

She and Raj entered the room, only wanting to unpack and go to sleep. There were no words spoken, only the sounds of zippers, the opening and closing of drawers, rustling of fabric, and gentle taps of items being placed on counters and tables.

They slipped into the bed, only saying goodnight.

They were too tired from the trip up to stay up and think about anything. She fell straight to sleep without a second thought.

{Sheldon}

He woke up, slowly groggy, his headache roaring back to life. He realized how nauseated he was only moments after. Blinking he looked for the clock, trying to find out what time it was. It was 2:48. He knew there was no way he would get back to sleep. Not like this.

"Alison?" He mumbled, hardly aware that he had said it. He pushed himself to his feet and stepped over to the chair. He lightly touched her leg. "Alison, I feel terrible," he managed to say loud enough for her to wake up.

She opened her eyes slowly and, clearly not having heard the words that woke her up enough to understand them, asked "What?"

"I feel awful, I can't sleep," He repeated, whispering now.

He saw her draw a quick breath and take on an upset, sympathetic look.

She stood up, and fetched the formerly cold cloth and tossed it into the freezer.

"Do you want some toast or something?" she offered. She sounded like she was hardly awake.

He assumed that he looked startled, or upset that she had offered to make him toast, when she defended herself, "What I just thought, maybe… bread is a starch." Clearly she was thinking fully coherent thoughts despite the lack of sleep. It was cute how she jumped to defend herself. A bit childish, but cute, how her voice switched from half asleep to sheepish, shrill, and defensive over a half second pause.

He shook his head. Sure, he was pleased that she had identified the purpose of having toast when you are sick, rather than pinning it on tradition and moving on, but that didn't change his state. "I couldn't eat," he tried to assure her; she needed to believe in herself. She was smart, but not confident enough to use it, while idiots think they are right all the time.

"Do I want toast?" She asked him, looking at him, expecting an answer. She could apply facts to a situation, but she didn't know if she wanted toast. So that is how her brain works…

"Why would I know that?" He asked bluntly.

"Is hungry an emotion?" she asked him in return. He readied himself for the usual attack about how he was apathetic and a terrible judge of feelings.

"In some respects I would say yes…" he told her.

"Well, it is the brain's reaction to a physical need for food. And emotions are supposedly reactions to physical stimuli, but considering I seem to manage to screw up knowing if I'm hungry, I must say sort of," she was thinking out loud. But her use of supposedly, he smiled at that. Of course she doubted herself, again, she was thinking, finding an unexplored piece of her mind and setting it free.

"Okay, I'm going to have toast on the assumption that I might need food…" she smiled putting a piece of bread in the toaster, "food, there are too many conflicting social rules about food, eat and you are fat, don't and you're anorexic… Really America, coming from a person who can remember too many pointless details, but can't even remember if she ate dinner, can we have some more straightforward rules!"

"Do you really care about all that?" He inquired.

"I have to, I hate to, but I must. You know how if sea turtles eat plastic bags they feel full and don't eat, I'm kind of like that, only with everything. Now sea turtles don't have an irritating, yet so vital social structure like humans, so they don't eat and they die. I'm not like you. I don't have a perfect memory. Compared to you I have the memory of a goldfish. I stretch it to the max and force myself to remember everything. I could be a great normal person, or a stress laden genius-league girl, and I clearly chose the second one," she started, "I have so little inside myself that tells me to react. If it weren't for society, I would be like the turtle that ate the bag. If I didn't have to adhere to social standards, I wouldn't know anything about emotion. They haven't found a way to make robots feel emotion the way people do, but they can react to stimuli based on a set of rules. I know upset, frustration, and excitement, that's about it."

"I guess I'm saying that I need to reprogram myself," she replied. He smiled, that was perfect, and she had no idea how perfect that sounded. !111 "I need to stop fighting so hard to blend in, I have to stop being afraid to stand out," she continued, then grinned, before saying, "I need a new code, my own set of rules."

The toast popped up, and she looked at it for a moment before asking, "Care to explain the, umm, robot mask?"

"Cylon, It's a cylon," he tried not to laugh.

{Amy}

Amy woke up, and not trying to go back to sleep right away, she decided to have some tea. She had to use hot tap water, not ideal, but at this moment not a big enough to complain about. She didn't want to eliminate going back to sleep as an option, so she grabbed the tea bag labeled DECAF in large yellow print.

The tea steeped, but weakly. She didn't care; it was starting to hit her, the full implications of the break up. And of Alison. It didn't bother her so much that she lost Sheldon as how hard she tried to make it work to begin with. And the shocking implications that two people who knew so little about love could just trip over it by random chance.

Sheldon didn't understand love, she knew firsthand. They were just good friends at the best. To him that was all there was, but considering his anti-social tendencies, good friends was a huge victory. Except he seemed to be reaching good friends with Alison very fast, and she was charming, pretty and awkward, yet in the cute way, like a kitten that trips over its own paws. Amy had heard of the plans to watch Star Trek, if she liked it she would instantly be closer to Sheldon than she ever was.

It hurt to think it, however true it was. He was a bit obsessed, she would never understand why, but if it mattered so intensely to him and she agreed, she would have something Amy never stood a chance at. Sure this was hardly the makings of a real relationship, but Sheldon wasn't like that. She had clearly been trying to force something that wasn't there. Sheldon didn't know about love, and neither did Alison.

Penny had said that she didn't consider herself any more than a girl. That explained her perky smiles, the way she so often stood with one arm at her side and the other holding the elbow of the first arm nervously. At least Amy could honestly say that she was much more self-confident than that. And if that was what it took to get Sheldon's attention then she could consider herself way too good for him, in a roundabout sort of way.

She set the empty tea cup down, hardly aware that she had finished it and slipped back into bed.

"Amy?" Stewart asked rolling over.

"I couldn't sleep so I had some tea, I'm fine now, just go back to sleep," she muttered sleepily ready to go back to sleep.

{Sheldon}

"Okay, so to summarize it's pretty much a villainous robot from BattleStar Galactica?" She asked.

"Well," he cut himself off, "you could say that…"

"So why is it on toast?" she inquired.

Valid questions all valid questions, but he couldn't answer them. He could feel this moment starting to come crashing down. He wanted it to last, he wanted to stand here talking about battlestar, or anything really, he just wanted to hear her say something. Her replies were intelligent, no matter how little she knew. That was something he didn't find in Leonard, or anyone else.

She fought to remember everything, she said it was hard for her, but she did a better job than she thought. No one else tried like she did. It felt good to talk to her, knowing that she would remember it, almost as perfectly as he did. He didn't think it mean to be tired of all of the forgetful people, to find it refreshing to know someone who he could converse with naturally. He didn't want this to crash to a close just yet.

"I think I need to sit down…" he mumbled, pushing himself away from the counter and heading to the chair.

"Or not…" he gasped, changing directions his meaning couldn't have been clearer. And judging by the look on her face she understood.

The moment rushed by, his headache becoming a distracting factor, still clinging to the last fragments of their conversation, looking into her teal-y blue eyes, finding a little brown ring around her pupil, central heterochromia… He threw up.

Shock, not anger was all he saw on Alison's face when the world stopped spinning long enough for him to look up at her.

"Well, if I wasn't already infected, I am now," she finally said. And it was more than certainly true. Her chest and neck splattered with vomit. "I am going to take a shower," her tone was flat. Too flat, he wanted desperately for her to how some hint of emotion, usually he would never wish for such a thing but he needed it now. He had to know what she really thought.

"I," He squeaked.

"I'm not angry. At all. My anger is sulky and catlike, it falls somewhere between total apathy and holding a grudge. You would know," she assured him sweetly, as she picked up a pink towel and a teal one from her suitcase.

"So much for sleeping…" she mumbled leaving the room.


	18. The Gravitational Towel Displacement

{Alison}

She wasn't lying when she said she wasn't angry. How could she be? It was her fault to begin with. She stood in the shower, hot water pouring over her. She had so much to learn!

At least she had finally told someone everything that had begged to be said for so long. Penny would laugh if she knew that she had just told the story she had refused to tell her to Sheldon. Penny sees him as heartless. That couldn't be farther from true. Sheldon clearly had a heart. The look of pure terror he gave at the prospect of having mortally wounded their friendship, which was more than enough proof for her. And as a scientist who fully subscribed to "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof" that was something. She knew that he wasn't, because he already didn't want to wreck their relationship. After just about a week he already feels like there is something to lose that is worth saving.

If that was heartless then she was a lobster.

He cared more about their friendship than his condition. She knew she had chosen to trust the right person. If she was going to release herself to all of the things that she had held as forbidden, with the assistance of one companion, she was going to be damn sure that it was the right person, there could be no take two, no reset, no second try, it was pick the right guy against all odds or live in solitude.

Solitude, she could manage that… As long as there was Wi-Fi, her own private lab space, and some way to keep it updated, she wouldn't mind never seeing a person face to face again. And that stayed solid, until Sheldon slipped into her mind. She knew she couldn't live in solitude next to him. If he had never existed, she could live alone forever. That was a lot.

"Well, if he can crash my hypothetical plans for solitude, I've made the right choice," she mumbled to herself.

Love, to her it was silly and overrated. She had had more than one boyfriend in the past, but it was never real… Just a publicity stunt between the Urchin cheer squad and various sports teams, particularly football. Especially the flyers, there was something about the skinny, flexible, lightweight cheer girls and the tough, tall school sports stars that "the fans just eat it up, it increases school spirit, as cheerleaders our primary goal is to increase school spirit. Giving them a little cliché fairytale couple increases fan following, it increases ticket sales to games, which increases our budget, plus Prom Queen is ALWAYS an Urchin," Megan Stevens, the head cheerleader her junior and senior years, went on to be a publicist.

This was real, she didn't think it was love, but it was something. She was washing puke out of the tips of her hair. Most of the world would be on a series hate list for that, but she hardly cared, she would be at least a little bit upset about the whole definitely infected with a genetically modified virus thing. She wasn't, she could think of few people she forgave that instantaneously, her father, Mandy, and Sheldon, maybe Penny. Not quite love, but trust, an immense, unbreakable trust, to get that kind of trust from someone known to be reclusive and distrusting, that proved that he was doing something VERY right. She trusted him with the story of her past and the potential of her future.

Friendship, like back in kindergarten, when nothing mattered, and you had nothing to hide yet, an innocent relationship, just two kids, with no idea how the world works, they were just two kids.

He had smiled, multiple times, at her. Most notably earlier that very day, when he had asked her if she had seen any other Science Fiction shows or movies.

"_Well hardly… I've tried not to. I've avoided it. I feared that I'd fail to become a geneticist. I didn't want to give myself anything to dream of back then. Now I've got all of history of Sci-Fi and super heroes to catch up on. I couldn't stop myself from watching the Spider-Man movies." She had fed him a cover, an excuse, swearing to tell him the truth when the pressure of the moment was long gone._

_He didn't freak out; he simply smiled and responded, "Well, I guess we do…"_

He had taken her singular statement and added himself to it, it was perfect. She set her head on the shower wall. She could see the periodic table through the curtain, backwards, but it still enforced how she was finally allowed to do crazy things like that. She was free from her oppressor, herself, but still.

She didn't care what anyone thought, high school was over- way over, so there was no one to think bad about her. Sheldon was here, and he wanted to rehabilitate her, well probably he was most concerned with having a new friend with similar interests, but that was enough.

"Alison?" he whimpered from the other side of the door, "I don't mean to intr-" she heard the door open. It didn't take a quarter of her intellect to piece that together.

She shut the water off and stuck her left arm out of the curtain, placing a hand on the towel hook, feeling the teal towel she had hung there.

'_This has to be the most graceful thing no one will see you do, in three, two, one!' _

She leaped out of the shower and wrapped up in the towel in one fluid motion.

'_There we go Carter, now you are acting like a person.' _She congratulated herself in the most condescending possible way.

"Sheldon," she announced her presence to avoid scaring him. Coarsely, but quite frankly she was shocked that she pulled off the towel maneuver.

She had no idea what to do next, she really hadn't thought any farther than leaping out of the shower and wrapping up in a towel, she was pretty sure she would mess that up. She hadn't, she did something right, she knew she had to trust herself, learn to listen to her own instincts.

She set a hand on his back, still unsure of what to do, and like it would matter if she had a plan. Sheldon vomiting and she stood powerless. She might as well be locked in a glass tube. This was a glass tube, her boundaries more mental than physical, and she just couldn't break out.

Sheldon recovered from the attack and stood up, slowly. She didn't think, she just wrapped her arms around him. For one moment she felt useful, he sank into her arms, she felt like she was actually doing what she stayed behind to do. She could feel the extra heat from his fever, knowing things weren't alright. She cared, of course, but for one moment everything was okay.

The moment naturally ended, and the fact that she was simply wrapped in a towel failed to cross her mind. The teal cloth dropped to the floor, her eyes wide with shock as she practically chased it to the ground. Heart pounding she draped the towel around her shoulders quickly then pulling her arms out on top. Panic, her initial reaction was panic. But she knew that Sheldon wasn't that kind of guy.

{Sheldon}

"Well, do we pretend that never happened?" She asked him.

"I assume you would prefer that," he replied.

"I have a feeling that won't be entirely necessary, or possible. We are two individuals with above average memories. Forgetting is impossible. Why should we pretend to forget, when we are beyond mature enough to continue on the same way regardless of the event in question," she responded.

He nodded, agreeing, she had so eloquently stated exactly what he was hoping she would. His question was a bit of a test. Only loosely thought out, but a test none the less.

All of the notable moments faded to the back of his awareness. He was exhausted, sick, and miserable. There was nothing that Alison could do, or fetch that would make it better, lots that could make it worse, but the cold towel and companionship was about all he could ask for. Well, sleep, but even in this state, he knew she couldn't bring him sleep. Too ill to even complain.

He didn't notice that she was guiding him to the couch until they got there.

"So then, Sleep or Star Trek?" Alison asked, with a little glimmer in her eye at the second option, it didn't look like she wanted to show a n opinion, though she did.

"I couldn't sleep if I tried", he replied, forcing her to choose for herself.

"Sleep is useless at this point..." She resumed her position by his knees and continued the show. He knew she could really use sleep, even if she claimed to be fine. She loved it, even if she wouldn't admit it out loud. That simple knowledge was enough to make him feel a bit better. Just a bit, as he still felt horrible.

I'm really sorry for not updating this for so long. It started with a little writer's block, and then I kind of started watching Sherlock, and then I had a little computer issue that really shouldn't have stopped me from writing, but it did, and so I have no legitimate excuse. I don't even think a family death would validate 9 weeks of no writing. How is a traumatic fandom incident? No? Well I will be doing this again as much as I have time for. So very sorry.


End file.
